RM builds on Building Schools initiative

International expansion and maturing Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contracts helped education specialist RM boost sales by more than 20% in fiscal 2009.

Preliminary financials for the twelve months ended 30 September show revenues climbed to £347m,and profits roise to £14.1m up from £12.95m in the same period last year. 

The group is very different from five years ago," said Terry Sweeney, CEO in a statement. "We have moved from a largely domestically-focused IT business, to a broadly-based international education group."

This may be over-egging the pudding somewhat; although revenues from outside the UK grew 150% to £41.5m, this constituted just 12% of group sales. The Computrac acquisition in the US contributed £21.6m.

The Learning Technologies division which sells software, systems and infrastructure turned over £264m, up 22%. BSF revenues were £34m compared to £9m a year earlier.

The Education Resources business unit grew 19% to £64m and the Assessment and Data Services division was flat at £19.3m.

To date, RM has been selected as the IT supplier for 14 of the 37 BSF projects that have been awarded and it has delivered to 41 of the 134 schools in these contracts.

"Our investment in the BSF programme is now beginning to mature. FY-2010 will see further significant growth in BSF revenue, as we deliver to 70% more schools than the 28 we delivered in FY-2009," it said.