group plc
annual report 
2004 year in brief 1
group at a glance 2
directors 4
chairman’s statement 5
chief executive’s review 6
directors’ report 10
corporate governance 13
remuneration report 15
independent auditors’ report 17
corporate directory 18
consolidated profit and loss account 19
balance sheets 20
consolidated cash flow statement 21
statement of accounting policies 23
notes to the financial statements 25
five year financial summary 37
notice of agm 38
proxy form 39
globally competitive
manufacturing solutions
our products and assemblies are used by some of the world’s leading brands in
consumer automotive telecommunications and industrial sectors
registered in england no 236394            
contents stadium group plc
1
global experience
expertise and opportunity
year in brief
summarised results
2004 2003
£m £m
group turnover
asia 1645 1445 14
uk 1735 2043 15
–––––– ––––––
total 3380 3488 3
–––––– ––––––
–––––– ––––––
adjusted pbt 234 188 24
goodwill amortisation 013 013
exceptional items 020 011
–––––– ––––––
reported pbt 201 186 8
–––––– ––––––
pence pence
adjusted eps 73 53 38
goodwill amortisation 05 05
exceptional items 05 04
–––––– ––––––
reported eps 63 52 21
–––––– ––––––
dividend per share 325 290 12
–––––– ––––––
denotes before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items
stadium electronics turnover
by origin by destination
1 uk 59
2 europe 15
3 asia 11
4 americas 8
5 other 7
by sector
1 consumer 40
2 industrial 25
3 automotive 22
4 telecom 13
1 2
3
4
1
uk
33
2
asia
67
3
4
5 annual report and accounts 2004
2
group at a glance electronics – uk operations
stadium electronics offers high quality electronic
manufacturing services from its site at hartlepool
in north east england
a dedicated engineering team provides comprehensive
design and buildtoprint support services together 
with production engineering quality and test 
equipment origination
customers benefit from full turnkey project
management support from concept to delivery
electronics – stadium power
stadium power design and manufactures custom and
standard switch mode power supplies and associated
power products
as one of the uk’s leading power solution 
providers we have a fully comprehensive range 
of products available including acdc converters 
dcdc converters dcac inverters ups’s
programmable switch mode power supplies smps
euro cassettes battery chargers transformers 
plugtop and desktop power supplies
electronics – asia operations
stadium asia comprises a design and commercial
centre based in hong kong and a high volume
production facility at chang ping city in the guangdong
province of the peoples republic of china
the business is delivering high rates of growth in the
provision of electronic manufacturing services ems to
worldwide customers covering consumer industrial
automotive and telecommunications applications
our factory includes the following capabilities


Summary:
 trading overview
the group is positioned to benefit
from strong growth in the provision
of manufacturing services to
customers in the uk continental
europe and the us from our facility
in dongguan people’s republic 
of china
we are able to offer a costeffective
yet low risk route towards far east
sourcing which is becoming an
increasingly essential focus for
established companies operating in
mature economies our capabilities
have been further enhanced by
continued investment in facilities
and people enabling our customers
to source more complex products
and assemblies with higher added
value content
we have seen success from the
ongoing development of standard
and custom power solutions
bringing together design and
technical resources from our uk
engineering team with our medium
and high volume production
capabilities at hartlepool 
and dongguan
the local market in asia for
relatively high volume low
technology products such as
chargers and adaptors has become
very competitive most sourcing
decisions in this sector are driven
primarily by price and offer less
attractive returns to suppliers
especially in view of substantial
increases in the cost of basic
commodities such as plastics and
copper we have continued to resist
downward price pressure at the
expense of volume focusing our
resources instead on business
offering greater added value
stmc limited our subsidiary
created in 2003 to provide
manufacturing services to the
domestic sector in china made a
contribution to turnover of £050m
whilst this is modest the facility
offers an important strategic foothold
which will provide competitive
advantages as the future demands
of chinese consumers and
manufacturers are expected to
become more sophisticated
reported results were again
affected by the weakness of the 
us dollar with an adverse impact 
of some 11 equivalent to sales 
of approximately £2m compared
with 2003 since acquisition of
stadium asia in march 2000 
the us dollar has depreciated by
more than 30 this provides the
backdrop against which reported
turnover from stadium asia
expressed in sterling has doubled
from £810m in 2001 to £1645m in
2004 underlying growth in dollar
terms has shown compound growth
of over 35 from approximately
us12m to approximately us30m
over the same period
chief executive’s review
stadium group plc
6
annual report and accounts 2004 results and dividend
turnover reduced by 3 to
£3380m in 2004 from £3488m 
last year this was primarily as a
result of currency movements
although sales from uk electronics
also reduced as expected from
£1060m to £798m the proportion
of sales from higher addedvalue
manufacturing services showed
further growth bringing the group
operating margin before exceptional
items and goodwill amortisation to
71 2003 56
profit before tax was £201m
compared with £186m for last 
year profit before tax goodwill
amortisation and exceptional items
increased by 24 to £234m 
from £188m
exceptional costs of £020m 
reflect the closure of our
manufacturing operation at clacton
in essex the remaining business
from this site has been distributed
between asia and hartlepool it is
anticipated that the sale of the
freehold property at clacton will
mitigate the impact of these
exceptional costs in 2005
earnings per share increased by
21 to 63 pence compared with
52 pence last year earnings per
share before goodwill amortisation
and exceptional items rose by 38
to 73 pence from 53 pence
the board proposes a final dividend
of 225 pence bringing the total for
the year to 325 pence per ordinary
share this represents an increase
of 12 compared with 2003
29 pence and is covered by
earnings before goodwill amortisation
and exceptional items 22 times
stadium group plc
7
2004 2003
£’000 £’000
turnover
– asia 16452 14450
– uk 7977 10604
24429 25054
operating profit 1964 1537
electronics
turnover sourced from asia
operations grew by 14 to
£1645m this represents
underlying growth of 23 in 
local currency diluted by an 
11 reduction in the average
value of the us dollar relative 
to sterling
turnover sourced from the uk
reduced by 25 from £1060m 
to £798m this was primarily
attributable to the winding down of
operations at clacton which closed
in december 2004 there was 
also a reduction in demand from
mature contracts at hartlepool
notwithstanding this reduction 
our uk manufacturing operations
remain an important element of our
comprehensive service offer to uk
customers which still contribute
almost 60 of electronics turnover
by destination the increasing emphasis on higher
value contracts and corresponding
reduction in commodity business
again resulted in an improved
operating margin overall from 
61 to 80 this also reflected
enhanced utilisation of capacity 
in our asia facility which is now
approximately 70
during the year more than £060m
was invested in the dongguan plant
with the most significant benefit
being a doubling of capacity in the
automatic placement of surface
mounted components and associated
test facilities the new equipment is
able to place a broader range of the
latest components and supports 
the continued move towards more
technologically demanding contracts
during the final quarter of the
year stadium asia limited
entered a product development
and manufacturing agreement
with sealink technology limited a
privately owned company registered
in hong kong sealink offers a range
of radio frequency “rf” products
for the marine and hobby markets
to a select group of original
equipment manufacturers and
distributors in europe asia and the
usa under the agreement
stadium asia will provide
manufacturing and customer
support services and sealink will
retain responsibility for marketing
product development and technical
support stadium asia purchased
inventory and manufacturing
equipment from sealink at net book
value of approximately £012m this
arrangement offers opportunities 
to increase sales of products
previously offered by sealink which
amounted to approximately £070m
in 2004 and gives stadium asia
exposure to an important and
growing area of technical expertise
on 1 january 2005 daren electronics
limited changed its name to stadium
power limited this subsidiary
based in diss norfolk offers a range
of standard power solutions and
provides design engineering
and manufacturing services for 
more complex power management
applications the name change
reflects the increasing integration
of the business into stadium
electronics with projects engineered
at diss being manufactured at
hartlepool or dongguan depending
upon volume and supply chain
considerations
chief executive’s review continued
8
annual report and accounts 2004
2004 2003
£’000 £’000
turnover 9372 9821
operating profit 871 890
branded plastics
turnover in the second half of the
year was maintained at prior year
levels after experiencing a reduction
in the first half
new product launches in both
babycare and building products
markets were well received and
are meeting sales expectations
sourcing activities in the far east 
are becoming well established 
and offer further opportunities for
new product development in 
coming months balance sheet and cash flow
cash flow from operations
amounted to £103m compared
with £238m last year the major
reason for the reduction was the
payment of additional pension
contributions of £189m 2003
£049m including a nonrecurring
contribution of £088m of deficit
funding in august 2004 the
additional pension contributions 
are reflected in ssap 24 variation
costs charged to operating profit of
£035m and an increase in 
ssap 24 prepayments included in
debtors of £154m
deferred consideration of 
£099m was collected during the
year resulting from the sale of
businesses in 2002 and the final
instalments totaling £031m fall due
in the first half of 2005 bank loans
payable by quarterly instalments
reduced by £115m during the year
including gains on foreign exchange
amounting to £013m
net bank borrowings at the 
end of the year stood at £158m
2003 £159m giving gearing of
114 2003 120
pension costs
there has been a significant
increase in the company’s funding
of its historic pension liabilities
during the year and the
performance of the underlying
investment assets has continued to
show improvement it should be
noted however that the actuarial
estimate of the present value of
future liabilities reflects increases
resulting from prevailing discount
rates and mortality assumptions 
the results of the next triennial
review for accounting purposes are
expected in july 2005 when full
consideration will be given in the
light of uk and international
accounting standards
current trading and prospects
customer orders products in
development and new enquiries are
all at high levels and current trading
is consistent with our expectations
our main growth activities – 
the provision of high value
manufacturing services from
stadium asia and the design and
build of custom power solutions –
have reached a turnover exceeding
£14m from a standing start in
march 2000 we are confident 
that our growing reputation and
expanding network of worldwide
sales contacts can deliver
opportunities to maintain 
this momentum
nigel rogers
chief executive
28 february 2005
stadium group plc
9