... to 50%. More assets being bought and used means higher capital employed and lower return on capital. Fixed assets and current assets have increased but profit didn't increase proportionally so capital employed has increased. Capital Employed has risen by £78 (138-64) million. Share capital has also risen by £56 million and this was due to a new issue of shares in the year. Cash reserves are up by £22 million also. Gross profit margin has increased from just under 56% to just over 57%. This marginal change means sales are contributing to gross profit more effectively as sales have increased. Net profit margin has also slightly increased from just under 19% to just over 20%. Again higher sales means that more money is contributing to net profit. The company has expanded in 2001 as shown by the increase in fixed asset and working capital. The use of their assets ...

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