novar plc
novar house
24 queens road
weybridge
surrey kt13 9ux
england
telephone 44 0 1932 850 850
fax 44 0 1932 823 328
website wwwnovarcom
annual report 
and accounts 2003
novar plc annual report and accounts 2003
969fcbc  18304  348 pm  page 1 

Summary:
 novar annual report 2003
chairman’ s statement 02
“our continued investment in
new products and marketing
initiatives as well as the
ongoing restructuring
programme have been
important factors in achieving
this resilient performance”
in markets that proved to be difficult novar has
achieved a solid operating performance in spite
of the adverse impacts of a weak us dollar and
higher pension charges operating cash flow
which remains a key performance indicator has
remained strong
reported sales were broadly unchanged at
£1431m although this represented a 2
improvement at constant currencies and including
acquisitions adjusted group operating profits at
£106m 2002 £118m were some 10 below 2002
but grew 2 before absorbing £13m of additional
pension charges £4m of adverse currency effects
and a £3m contribution from acquisitions 
our continued investment in new products and
marketing initiatives as well as the ongoing
restructuring programme have been important
factors in achieving this resilient performance
the 2003 acquisition of alerton building controls
in the us has performed well and ahead of plan
growing market share and margin alerton
contributed sales of £13m and operating profits
of £4m the enhanced product and technology
offering which this acquisition has brought to our
customers in the us augurs well for the future
in many of our markets we continue to face
challenging conditions in particular the t elecoms
and datacoms markets of intelligent building
systems have been hard pressed and whilst
some recovery is expected we have concluded it
would be prudent to write off £75m of goodwill
associated with this part of the business
furthermore with vacant office space reaching
record levels in germany last year there appears
to be no likelihood of an early recovery in german
commercial office construction the key demand
driver for our underfloor cable management
systems we therefore consider it prudent to write
off £18m of goodwill in this business even though
it remains in a strong leading position in its market 
2003 has also seen a number of changes to your
board i am delighted to welcome daniel dayan
who as chief executive of intelligent building
systems will continue to lead this business
forward charles korbell has at his request
stepped down from the board to spend more
time on the security printing business we shall
miss having him as a fellow director though we
welcome his continued high commitment to the
security printing business which has grown over
50 in the last ten years under his leadership
i am very pleased that hans nilsson chief
executive of spectris plc has agreed to join the
board as an independent nonexecutive director
his experience particularly within the electronic
and controls industries will be of great value to
novar in continuing its strategic focus on strong
businesses in growth markets
gerry murphy  after six years service much of that
time as a highly effective chairman of the audit
committee has left the board he has been an
invaluable colleague we thank him for all his
efforts on behalf of novar and wish him every
success in the future we are pleased that oliver
stocken formerly finance director of barclays
plc has agreed to take on the chairmanship of
the audit committee
in spite of the difficulties novar has made and
continues to make good progress in all three
operating divisions this owes much to the efforts
of our employees who remain committed to the
success of the business i thank them on behalf of
my colleagues
the board is recommending an unchanged final
dividend of 66p per ordinary share payable on
4 june 2004 to all shareholders on the register at
the close of business on 30 april 2004
sir graham hearne
chairman
chairman’ s
statement
9690105  18304  1252 pm  page 02 03
novar annual report 2003
chairman’ s statement continued
novar has achieved a solid
operating performance in spite 
of the adverse impacts of a weak
dollar and higher pension charges
we continue to make good
progress in all three operating
divisions this owes much to 
the efforts of our employees 
who remain committed to the
success of the business
key messages
9690105  18304  1252 pm  page 03