Kewill sees healthier pipeline

(By Anthony Miller – Thursday 16th July 2009 9:00am). Confirming the sentiment expressed at its FY results last month (see Kewill Update), logistics software firm Kewill has seen slow new licence sales since the beginning of the new FY, but reports “positive progression” in the US and European pipeline which it expects to translate to “significant” orders over the next six months. This is indeed encouraging news.

We’d have to say that we are not CEO Paul Nichols’ favourite research house at the moment, having taken a critical view of the company’s performance in recent postings. But, rather than take this lying down, Nichols has sought to put his counterarguments to us, and we’d have to say they seem rather compelling. Indeed, we expect to meet up with Nichols soon to complete our ‘re-education’. As ever, we will let you know how our views might have changed. Irrespective, there is one fact that we cannot dispute. When Nichols came on board as CEO in August 2002, Kewill was worth around £12m. Today it’s worth £58m. That’s a result!