Redstone makes its first profit

Dot-com crash survivor Redstone has turned in its first pre-tax profit despite its revenues sliding by 11.8 per cent to £60.7m.

The £13,000 profit represents an achievement for a company that was rescued from liquidation in 2001 with only weeks to spare. The company said that two million-pound deals signed in March provided its strongest order intake since its restructuring.

Redstone CEO Ian Brown said: "We are in a stronger position to deliver profitable growth over the medium term."

Redstone is fresh from the recabling of the Birmingham Bullring, which has 350km of converged communications with a strong wireless element.

Ten-year-old Redstone was one of a number of companies that aimed to compete with BT in providing broadband services in the mid- to late '90s. But the delay in forcing local loop unbundling brought it to the edge of financial disaster.

It was baled out with £25m of shareholder cash in 2001. The one-time carrier then dropped the word "telecom" from its name and sold its voice business to BT in a unique deal.

Redstone then concentrated on developing products for the business market in tandem with BT Wholesale, which operates Redstone's telecoms network. It now concentrates on converged voice, smart buildings, remote working and security.