Commodities and technology have both been long-term darlings of the Alternative Investment Market and for Gavin Lavelle, the ability to blend the two has kept his company firmly on the radar of investors. For the chief executive of Brady (LON:BRY), a company that develops and sells trading and risk management software to the global commodity markets, economic turbulence has wreaked havoc for his customers in recent years but sales at the company have continued to grow.

When Lavelle was appointed to head up Brady in September 2007 – succeeding its founder Dr Robert Brady – he was tasked with driving sales, brand and international exposure. Revenues that year touched £5.7m. Three years later they have nearly doubled to £11.1m, with underlying pre-tax profits coming in at £1.5m. The figures contrast with a backdrop of commodity markets that have boomed, corrected and boomed again since 2000. Meanwhile, Brady’s brand recognition has steadily advanced among a blue chip client base that boasts some of the biggest market players in the world.

At its heart, Brady’s software helps anyone involved in energy, metals and soft commodities, from producers to banks to brokers, manage their transactions. With more than 150 clients, the latest being a major upgrade contract from aluminium giant Norsk Hydro, Brady is a rising star in the market for commodity trading and risk management software. In three years it has pulled of three acquisitions including metals trading specialist Comsoft in January 2009, Swiss soft commodities business Viveo Switzerland in March 2010 and Norwegian energy trading software company Viz Risk Management Services last December. Lavelle says that while the company is now comfortable with its base of intellectual property, further acquisitions are likely.

Gavin, what was your remit when you joined Brady back in 2007?

Well I think that Brady has always had good technology, it was founded on the Cambridge Science Park by some very good engineers. I think it was typical of a software company in that it got to a certain level of development where it needed to do two things. One was to be more commercial and get much more brand awareness and sales power, and second, it needed to drive international expansion. I joined from SunGard, where I spent many years working in the international markets. Robert Brady had done a great job getting the business…

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