Specialist instrumentation and medical equipment supplier Hartest moved into the black in the year to March 31 after an improvement in the global economic climate following the previous year's downturn.

Pre-tax profits for the period totalled £1m, compared with a loss of £865,000 the previous year, on revenues that climbed to £22.2m from £20.7m.

Chief executive Geoff Spink told ShareCast that the company benefited from its niche positions in areas where customers were unlikely to cut back on expenditure.

Hartest said that its instrumentation division saw strength in the underwater cable fault location business and its ophthalmic testing instruments business.

Spink said that the underwater cable fault location business benefited from increased investment in telecommunications infrastructure, while the ophthalmic testing instruments business was helped by its exposure to a niche market.

Businesses exposed to the automotive and general industrial sectors performed less well due to the continuing downturn in those sectors, but the company said it had seen an encouraging upturn in demand towards the end of the financial year.

The medical services division 'achieved significant progress in increasing gross margins,' Hartest said.

Spink said that the strong performance from several areas and the improvement in demand from the automotive and industrial sectors leave the company optimistic on future prospects. The medical devices division could see some weakness from public sector cuts in the UK, though Spink said that the company was likely to do 'better than average' in this area.

Hartest, which suspended dividends during the downturn, will pay a final dividend of 3.33p, taking the full-year dividend to 4p.

Chairman Leeming told ShareCast that the company intended to implement an 'aggressive dividend policy' in future.

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