New horizons for Amor with English acquisition and Dubai airport deal

AMOR Group, the Inchinnan-based technology firm, has completed its first acquisition south of the Border in a multi-million pound deal that will help to launch its international expansion.

Chief executive John Innes sealed the deal to buy Warrington-based FS Walker Hughes on Wednesday night and will this week fly out to Dubai to sign the contract for the firm's first overseas office.

FS Walker Hughes specialises in a range of "kerb-to-gate" systems for airports, which manage everything from departure boards through to the allocation of gates for aircraft and airline billing for landing slots.

The company's systems will complement Amor's own aviation technology, which uses bluetooth signals from mobile phones to monitor passengers' progress through check-in and security and on to the shops, enabling airports to deploy more staff to ease bottlenecks.

Amor has also won a 6.6 million contract to provide systems to Dubai airport and Innes expects the deal will open up further opportunities in the Middle East and Asia.

He expects to open an office in Asia next year as major airports compete to become the main hubs in the eastern hemisphere.

Innes said: "I'm still a big competitive kid at heart so I'm really pleased with the Dubai contract because we beat off competition from a much bigger competitor. It was David verses Goliath and the Scottish David won - so maybe it was 'Davie' verses Goliath."

The chief executive plans to boost turnover to 72m by 2013, having grown revenue by 4m to 34m in 2010, with operating profits rising to 4.7m from 4.2m. The latest deal will swell the group's headcount from 25 to 466. Amor was created in 2009 following the acquisition of the Scottish IT services operations of French company Sword Group in a private equity-backed buyout.

Investors in the group include Growth Capital Partners, Clydesdale Bank and Scottish Enterprise.