Small caps round-up: ProPhotonix, Gooch and Housego, Kewill

Light-emitting display designer ProPhotonix has signed new distribution deals in Germany, Taiwan and the USA. The new distribution partners will handle distribution of the firm's machine vision illumination products in those countries. Machine vision systems enable the inspection of products throughout the manufacturing process and allow manufacturers to ensure that their products conform to the exact specifications to which they were initially designed.

By MoneyWeek

published 5 April 2012

Gooch & Housego, the specialist manufacturer of optical components and systems which issued a profit warning in February, expects to meet reduced expectations with its interim results. Since the February 21st trading update the group has seen further signs that confidence is returning to the Industrial Laser market, a view backed up by the receipt of two significant orders for Q-switches from customers in the Far East. Despite this improvement, overall demand levels remain below the record levels of the last two years. Demand from other market sectors, including telecommunications, aerospace & defence and life sciences, has been steady during the first half of the company's financial year and sales in these sectors remained broadly in line with the firm's original forecasts.

Kerry Logistics has signed a multi-year contract to implement logistics software group Kewill's freight forwarding solution, Kewill Forwarding, across its global organisation. According to Kewill, Kerry has "probably the strongest distribution network" in Greater China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The ASEAN grouping comprises 10 member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.