All shipshape at Raymarine

Raymarine, the UK marine electronics specialist, claimed its future is shipshape thanks to demand from leisure sailors for increasingly sophisticated systems ranging from fish-finders to on-board entertainment.

Announcing its first financial results since becoming a public company in December, Raymarine said its strategy of launching innovative new products for use across a wider range of vessels was paying off. The firm also seems to be benefiting from the desire of an older, increasingly affluent population to take to the water — but only if supported by an array of the latest safety and navigation technology.

Raymarine’s sales grew by 14 per cent to £106m in 2004, while operating profits increased 63 per cent to £17.5m — though a large chunk of this was swallowed up by the costs of floating on the stock exchange and other one-off costs.

The company, formed in 2001 through a management buy-out of Raytheon’s marine leisure business, supplies electronic systems to owners, skippers and charter operators of power and sailing boats, mostly 20–100ft in length.