A spate of new contract wins this year have boosted specialist IT firm SciSys as it continues to recovery from a disastrous 2015.
A year ago the Chippenham-based firm was rocked by serious problems with a major fixed-price contract. 
The crisis pushed the firm, which develops complex IT projects for clients in sectors such as space, defence and the media, into a half-year £1.1m loss on revenues down by 22%.
But in an update to shareholders at its AGM today, directors will say the firm has made an encouraging start to 2016.
In a statement released to the London Stock Exchange ahead of today’s meeting, SciSys said: “Based on the performance to date, a strong order book and an encouraging pipeline of opportunities for new business, the directors are confident that the company is well on track to meet full year market expectations and to report further excellent progress in returning to its previous levels of profitability.”
So far this year its Media & Broadcast division has secured contracts with an aggregate value of over £3.5m from existing clients and one major new one – the South African Broadcast Corporation.
Its Space division has won work worth more than £3.2m, mainly from existing programmes, including the European satellite-navigation system Galileo and the European Space Agency’s Exomars rover mission to Mars, pictured.
Of these multi-year contracts, £4.1m is expected to be recognised in 2016, with the remainder being delivered in subsequent years.
SciSys said these wins demonstrated its ability to apply its niche capabilities across a wide spectrum of markets and blue-chip customers.
The group’s total order book at the end of the first quarter was £35.5m – 21% higher than a year ago and close to its record high last December.
It has also slashed its net debt from £1m at the start of the year to £300,000 of net cash by the end of April.
The firm said it continued to view acquisitions as a key element in its growth strategy and had an active pipeline of potential acquisitions.
However it said it would continue to maintain a “highly selective approach” and would remain patient until it identified a compelling opportunity.
SciSys employs nearly 450 staff across its offices in Chippenham, Bristol, Leicester and Reading and two in Germany.
