Final Results

Lawrence PLC
26 September 2000


Preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2000

Highlights 

 - Sales growth of 9% to £26.5m   

 - Pre Tax profits (before exceptional item and amortisation of goodwill) up  
   19% to £3.6m

 - Earnings per share (before exceptional item and amortisation of goodwill)  
   ahead by 5% to 31.7p

 - Final dividend of 8.9p per share, making 11.4p per share for the full year 
   (v 10.3p) - an increase of 10%

 - Exports now over 52% of turnover

 - Eco Animal Health now profitable but drug registrations in Europe slower   
   than expected

 - Interpet made good progress and successfully integrated Blagdon Water      
   Garden product business

 - Current year has begun well. ECO Animal Health has very recently received  
   new licenses for ECOmectin in Denmark and further registrations for POUR-ON
   in Eire.


CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

RESULTS 

I am pleased to report another year of record profits of £3.6 million before
exceptional item, amortisation of goodwill and minority interest, up 19% on
last year.  Unfortunately during the financial year we unexpectedly incurred a
large amount of legal fees in connection with the bid from VDC plc, which ate
somewhat into our profits.  Exports continue to be over 52% of our turnover
and although we are learning to live with a strong Pound, it certainly still
has an impact on sales in our traditional continental European markets. 
Nevertheless, our overall turnover advanced 9%.  Last financial year was one
in which we decided to invest more heavily in our business than has been usual
so that we should be in a stronger position in the coming year. 

We believe that this was an appropriate time for such investment as the market
for shares in small public companies still continues to be out of favour with
investors.  It would be unusual for this phenomenon not to be just another
cycle and we strongly hope that our improving performance will be appreciated
once again by a market with more liquidity and which can continue to justify
our existence as a public company. The creation of shareholder value is of
paramount importance and we will continue to review all possible routes to
achieve this. 

Earnings per share increased 5% to 31.7p before amortisation and the
exceptional item.  Approval will be sought at the Annual General Meeting for
the payment of a final dividend of 8.9p net per Ordinary share, making a total
of 11.4p net per share for the year (1999: 10.3 pence (net)).  The dividend
will be payable on the 1 November 2000 to shareholders on the register on the
6 October 2000. 

In the late autumn we purchased our American distributor of pet products who
have a long established business of manufacturing and distributing ornamental
fish medication through traditional pet shop outlets and Wal-Mart.  We believe
that there is much we can do to expand our pet business in the United States
of America and the business is settling down well to our management style. 

AGIL
 
Agil again reported a good trading year in a very competitive international
market.  The on going strength of Sterling continues to have a detrimental
effect on expansion in certain areas with many countries also facing tough
internal economic conditions resulting in depressed producer prices in the pig
and poultry sectors.  The European market has been under the greatest pressure
where we have also had to cope with the Euro.  However, the strength of
Sterling has also had benefits in that it has enabled us to purchase certain
essential raw materials at more attractive prices which allows us to be more
competitive in the market place.  The effect was that we have managed to
increase our overall sales volumes over the previous year.  This indicates
that we have held our customer base which is crucial for the future
development of the business.  Some areas that are more US dollar orientated,
like South East Asia and Central South America, continue to produce growth as
they emerge from their serious economic crises experienced two years ago.  The
recent ban by the EC on certain antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) still
creates wide international interest in the production of drug-free pigs and
poultry. Sales of our PREFECT product to replace these antibiotics continue to
grow.  Although there are a few remaining AGPs still allowed to be used by the
EC it has been announced that there will be a review in early 2001 when it is
anticipated that a total ban will be implemented.  This will certainly create
a considerable increase in the demand for alternative natural replacement
products.  During the year we have been involved in discussions with a number
of potential distributors based in the Middle East, Central Europe, North
Africa, South America and Canada.  Trading has now started in three new areas
and we anticipate appointing another four new distributors within the next six
months.  Based on our position in the market, we are confident that with our
existing and newly appointed distributors we can expand the overall business
and take advantage of any economic upturn that presents itself within our wide
trading area. 

BLACKFAST CHEMICALS 

Blackfast Chemicals has continued to heavily promote in export markets its
unique room temperature blacking processes for the precision engineering
market.  We are all too aware that the volume of work produced in the United
Kingdom by the engineering industry has been dropping annually and this
diminishes our home customer base.  However, we are making good progress
introducing our products abroad and whereas Blackfast systems have in the past
only been capable of putting a black finish on steel, zinc and brass we are
delighted to be able to now offer a system to blacken most types of aluminium
for which there is a considerable market.  Traditionally, black finishes to
aluminium have been done by an anodising process which is costly and complex
but we can now offer a room temperature, simple to use process, affordable to
even the smallest engineering company.  The development of this unique product
has taken some years and we believe that there is a real opportunity to
increase overall sales worldwide as it will be used by most of our existing
customers in addition to their existing Blackfast system.  Apart from
investing in the development of this new process we have also taken on an
additional sales engineer and it is anticipated that good growth will be seen
in this division over the next twelve months. 

ECO GROUP 

With the granting of certain drug licences in Europe last year, albeit much
later than we had originally anticipated, ECO Animal Health has enjoyed the
breakthrough to real profitability this year.  Our registration department has
managed to submit the final dossiers for our most important AIVLOSIN drug
registrations and for which licences we would hope to receive after the spring
of next year.  Some eight years of testing work on up to seven generations of
certain species has been carried out successfully and this has enabled us to
take the applications to their final form.  The true value of an animal health
company is based upon the number of drug registrations that it holds and ECO
Animal Health currently possesses in excess of 180 registrations worldwide for
products which are among the top 10 best selling animal health products in the
market.  The more capable people that we employ in our registration
department, the faster we should get our drug registrations and we did
strengthen our team during the course of last year and we should enjoy the
benefit of that investment over the next two years. 

INTERPET LLC 

In September we acquired the business and assets of Aquarium Products, a US
company based in Baltimore, Maryland, which manufactures and distributes
ornamental fish medications.  This is an established business which was
Interpet's US distributor for over 20 years with its own well-known and
respected product line being sold via the pet and aquatic trade and the mass
market.  All the staff have been retained and have been joined by two senior
members of the Interpet UK management team.  In the first six months, trading
levels have been maintained and some new products from our UK based business
have been introduced which have been well received by our customers.  There is
a good opportunity for us to extend the catalogue of products, which currently
is restricted to aquariums and fish health, to include small animal
accessories.  This is much the same situation as we encountered in England
when we acquired Interpet some 5 years ago.  We are optimistic that our new
American subsidiary will become a major contributor to the growth of the
Group. 

INTERPET 

Interpet has made good progress during the year, managing to successfully
integrate the recently purchased Blagdon Water Garden products business.  The
purchase of Blagdon in Bridgwater has provided greater strength to our range
for the pond and water-gardening sector.  We now have a market leading range
of pond pumps, manufactured in the United Kingdom with an excellent reputation
for reliability and efficiency.  Customers have responded well to the
acquisition and with the injection of new products our sales have increased. 
We have a strong brand name, with positive values that forms a key part in our
future development plans for these fast growing market areas.  The resources
required to achieve this success caused some disruption to our core aquatic
activities but this has now settled down following the relocation of our brand
management team to Somerset.  In Dorking we continue to invest in our
manufacturing facilities and we now have a Medicines Control Agency
Manufacturers Assembly licence to allow us to pack the newly launched Zodiac
Wormer for Dogs.  This is an extension to the very successful Zodiac range of
flea treatments.  We continue to invest too in research and development.  The
sophisticated modern analytical instrumentation now at the disposal of our
staff has increased the speed and accuracy of Quality Control and enabled us
to deal with the increased work required of us by the regulatory authorities. 
The Export Sales team has worked hard to maintain our competitiveness in
Continental Europe and we are pleased to report that our sales level and
profitability have been maintained.  The Mikki range of products are
well-recognised in Europe and new ranges have been launched in the grooming
product area.  Pet Product business continues to grow and the re-sourcing of a
number of Far Eastern produced products by our China office has enabled some
product enhancements and quality improvements to be made as well as achieving
a margin increase.  Interpet is well positioned to take advantage of an
internationally growing sector and increase earnings next year. 

EMPLOYEES 

We currently employ a total of 175 people at our offices, warehouse and
factories and I would like to express my thanks to everyone associated with
the company without whose hard work and loyalty the company could not continue
to flourish. 

OUTLOOK 

The year has begun well and as usual we have set ourselves ambitious targets. 
Much of the growth will come from sales of our new registered animal
therapeutics and provided that the registrations are not held up beyond our
expectations, we should achieve our budgets and deliver further good growth in
earnings per share.  We, as ever, remain committed to working hard to increase
value for our shareholders. 


Peter Lawrence 
Chairman       

25 September 2000 


PUBLICATION OF NON-STATUTORY ACCOUNTS

The financial information set out in this preliminary announcement does not
constitute statutory accounts as defined in section 240 of the Companies Act
1985.

The summarised balance sheet at 31 March 2000 and the summarised profit and
loss account, summarised cash flow statement and associated notes for the year
then ended have been extracted from the Group's 2000 statutory financial
statements upon which the auditors opinion is unqualified and does not include
any statement under section 237 of the Companies Act 1985.
 

GROUP PROFIT & LOSS ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2000




                                        Note               2000          1999 
                                                              £             £ 
                            
       Turnover                      
       Continuing operations                         25,757,272    18,277,670 
       Acquisitions                                     811,614     6,220,777 
                                                     26,568,886    24,498,447 
                            
       Cost of sales                                (16,164,433)  (15,059,241)

                            
       Gross profit                                  10,404,453     9,439,206 
                            
       Net operating expenses                        (6,710,554)   (6,317,766)

                            
       Operating profit                      
       Continuing operations                          3,639,173     2,434,862 
       Acquisitions                                      54,726       686,578 
                                                      3,693,899     3,121,440 
                            
       Share of profits of associate                     40,000        57,255 
                            
       Income from other fixed asset 
       investments                                       30,751        54,157 
                            
       Exceptional item: loss on sale of 
       fixed asset                            1        (100,295)            - 

                            
       Net interest                                    (193,587)     (204,860)

                            
       Profit on ordinary activities before 
       taxation                                       3,470,768     3,027,992 
                            
       Tax on profit on ordinary activities          (1,107,710)   (1,202,101)

                            
       Profit on ordinary activities after 
       taxation                                       2,363,058     1,825,891 
                            
       Minority interest                               (237,626)      303,377 
                            
       Profit for the financial year                  2,125,432     2,129,268 
                            
       Dividends                                       (815,585)     (728,325)

                            
       Retained profit transferred to reserves        1,309,847     1,400,943 
                            
       Earnings per share                       2        29.87p        30.16p 
                            
       Diluted earnings per share               2        29.40p        29.44p 


GROUP BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2000

                                                Note        2000        1999 
                                                              £           £ 
       Fixed assets                      
       Intangible assets                               2,495,074     989,084 
       Tangible assets                                 1,511,745   1,873,360 
       Investments                                     1,583,671   1,606,846 
       Investment in associate                         1,052,178     823,557 
                            
                                                       6,642,668   5,292,847 
                            
       Current assets                      
       Stocks                                          7,248,771   6,342,995 
       Debtors                                         9,565,183   8,507,611 
       Cash at bank and in hand                          309,754   1,691,769 
                            
                                                      17,123,708  16,542,375 
                            
       Creditors: amounts falling due 
       within one year                               (10,543,599)(10,840,416) 
                            
       Net current assets                              6,580,109   5,701,959 
                            
       Total assets less current liabilities          13,222,777  10,994,806 
                            
       Creditors: amounts falling due after 
       more than one year                             (1,152,651)   (518,145) 
                            
                                                      12,070,126  10,476,661 
                            
       Capital and reserves                      
       Called up share capital                           716,032     707,432 
       Share premium account                           3,246,228   3,156,828 
       Capital redemption reserve                        105,829     105,829 
       Profit and loss account                         8,446,186   7,186,732 
                            
       Shareholders' funds - equity                   12,514,275  11,156,821 
                            
       Minority interest - equity                       (444,149)   (680,160) 
                            
                                                      12,070,126  10,476,661 


  
GROUP CASH FLOW STATEMET FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2000 

                                                 Note        2000        1999 
                                                               £           £ 
                            
       Net cash inflow/(outflow) from operating 
       activities                                 3      3,034,340   (655,300)

       Returns on investment and servicing of 
       finance                      
       Interest received                                    56,817     12,460 
       Interest paid                                      (250,404)  (217,320)

       Dividends received                                   30,751     54,157 
                            
       Net cash outflow from returns on 
       investments and servicing of finance               (162,836)  (150,703)

       Taxation                                         (1,493,274)  (929,590)
                            
       Capital expenditure and financial investment                      
       Purchase of intangible fixed assets                (818,402)  (402,857)

       Purchase of tangible fixed assets                  (374,853)  (777,740)

       Purchase/sale investments                          (177,446)    26,468 
       Sale of tangible fixed assets                       418,091     30,082 
                            
       Net cash outflow from capital expenditure 
       and financial investment                           (952,610)(1,124,047)

                            
       Acquisitions                      
       Purchase of businesses                           (1,170,821)  (397,461)

       Net cash balances acquired with subsidiary
       undertaking                                              -      41,649 
                            
       Net cash outflow from acquisitions               (1,170,821)  (355,812)

                            
       Equity dividends paid                              (730,242)  (512,546)

                            
       Financing                      
       Issue of shares                                      98,000    106,000 
       Increase/(repayment) of borrowing                   760,568    (46,134)

                            
       Net cash inflow from financing                      858,568     59,866 
                            
       Decrease in cash                             4     (616,875)(3,668,132)



                                                            2000         1999 
                                                               £         £  
                            
       Profit for the financial year                   1,309,847    1,400,943 
       Exchange differences                              (50,393)    (195,839)

                            
       Total recognised gains and losses for 
       the year                                        1,259,454    1,205,104 


 
1 EXCEPTIONAL ITEM 
The loss on disposal of fixed assets includes an exceptional loss of £100,295
incurred on the sale of a freehold property from the discontinued Petworld
business. 

                    
2 EARNINGS PER SHARE 
The calculation of earnings per share is based upon the profit for the
financial year divided by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in
issue during the year as follows: 

                                  2000                         1999           
                              Weighted                     Weighted    
                               average     Per              average       Per 
                             number of   share            number of     share 
                  Earnings      shares  amount  Earnings     shares    amount 
                      £000        £000   pence      £000       £000     pence 

                                                 
Basic earnings                                           
per share                                           
Earnings 
attributable to                                           
ordinary 
shareholders        2,125        7,115   29.87     2,129     7,058     30.16 
                                                 
Dilutive effect                                           
of securities                                           
Options                 -          113   (0.47)        -       173     (0.72) 
                                                 
                    2,125        7,228   29.4      2,129     7,231     29.44 


3 NET CASH (OUTFLOW)/INFLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES 

                                                         2000            1999 
                                                            £               £ 
                     
Operating profit                                    3,693,899       3,121,440 
Depreciation charge                                   242,184         276,243 
Amortisation charge                                   194,062         104,846 
Profit on disposal of fixed assets investments         (2,864)        (20,259)

Increase in stocks                                   (597,253)     (1,406,853)
(Increase)/decrease in debtors                     (1,171,809)      1,241,924 
Increase/(decrease) in creditors                      676,121      (3,972,641)

                                                    3,034,340        (655,300)

 
4 RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH FLOW TO MOVEMENT IN NET DEBT 

                                                   2000                 1999 
                                                      £                    £ 
                     
Decrease in cash in the year                   (616,875)          (3,668,132)
Cash (inflow)/outflow from financing           (760,568)              46,134 
Change in net debt resulting from cashflows  (1,377,443)          (3,621,998) 
Effect of foreign exchange changes              (50,393)             138,162 
                                             (1,427,836)          (3,483,836) 
                     
Net debt at 1 April 1999                     (2,378,526)           1,105,310 
                     
Net debt at 31 March 2000                    (3,806,362)          (2,378,526) 


5 ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET DEBT 

                                   At                                     At  
                              1 April                   Exchange    31 March  
                                 1999    Cash flow      movement        2000  
                                    £            £             £           £  
                                   
Cash at bank and in hand    1,691,769   (1,382,015)            -      309,754 
Overdrafts                 (3,292,998)     765,140             -   (2,527,858)
                           (1,601,229)    (616,875)            -   (2,218,104)
Debt                         (777,297)    (760,568)      (50,393)  (1,588,258)
                                   
                           (2,378,526)  (1,377,443)      (50,393)  (3,806,362)