Trafficmaster hasn't emerged from the recession unscathed, but both its business and customer services divisions continue to grow, leaving it nicely geared for economic recovery.

In August, Trafficmaster, which delivered sales up 15 per cent to a record £56 million in 2008, drove in with resilient half-year results to June. Sales were up 6 per cent to £28.9 million, with strength in business services offsetting relative weakness on the consumer side. Pre-tax profits sped 43 per cent higher to £3.4 million, assisted by tight control of costs.

Trading here as Trafficmaster and in the US through its Teletrac subsidiary, its services do much more than merely enhance the driving experience. Crucially, they deliver a tangible return on investment and reduce carbon footprint, by helping businesses with large fleets to improve performance by saving their drivers time and money.

Services offered include fleet tracking, management and navigation, delivered via the Fleet Director brand in the US, helping thousands of fleets to generate fuel and time savings. Significantly, the company provides tracking services to United Road Services, the largest tow-truck operator in the US.

In the UK, aside from Fleet Director, services include Smartnav, an intelligent route-finding technology that helps drivers to determine the best routes and avoid traffic congestion on journeys.

Additional services offered include live traffic information, delivered to mobile phones and via the group’s RDS TMC (Radio Data System – Traffic Message Channel) service. Furthermore, Trafficmaster has garnered investor attention through its high-profile tie-ups with brands including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, for its stolen vehicle-tracking services. Longer-term growth prospects are underpinned by its investment in emerging products such as road-pricing services and pay-as-you-drive insurance.

CEO Tony Eales said the performance showed ‘the benefit of having a balanced business, both in terms of geography and business line’, and he was especially pleased with the numbers, given some tough 2008 comparatives achieved before the full effects of the recession had been felt.

The star turn, in terms of divisions, was business services, where sales rose more than 30 per cent to £19.4 million on the back of large fleet account wins in the US. Though the going proved tough in the smaller business market, significant numbers of smaller clients were won in the US and UK markets.

Far trickier trading was experienced within the UK-focused consumer services arm, with exposure to a car market recently in the doldrums. Here, sales reversed by 25 per cent to £9.5 million and operating profits more than halved to £1.2 million. Nevertheless, business levels were held at the same run-rate as the second half of 2008 – signalling the division’s underlying strength and surprising analysts.

Trafficmaster, a tightly run concern whose efficiency-delivering, money-saving, carbon footprint-reducing services remain in high demand, has coped admirably with unprecedented downturn and looks well geared for wider recovery.