Whatever fears may prevail about the future, one publicly quoted firm is a continuing a bright spot on the Oxfordshire economic scene.

Oxford Instruments, which 51 years ago was the first technology company to spin out from Oxford University, this week reported adjusted pre-tax profits of £18.7m, up 76 per cent for the six months to September 30.

The strong result immediately pushed shares up 14 per cent.

Best of all, chief executive Jonathan Flint told The Oxford Times: “Despite clouds on the horizon, our strong pipeline of new products should help us to remain resilient even in a global economic downturn.

“This is largely because of our geographical diversity across the world, selling about the same in Asia, America, and Europe.”

That diversity means the company is not over-exposed to any crisis brewing in any one area — such as Europe for example, the destination for almost half of the UK’s exports.

China is now the fastest-growing market for Oxford Instruments with orders up 53 per cent.

The company employs 1900 people worldwide, 250 of whom work at its headquarters in Tubney Woods, near Abingdon, where Mr Flint (pictured) said he would be looking to employ more highly-skilled graduates in the coming year — building on the strong order book.

But he admitted that running a large company these days involved reading the economic runes in order to see where rough storms might blow up in the future.

He said: “We have in place a risk management structure and internal controls which are designed to identify, manage and mitigate risk.”

All the same, the operations of a high-tech company such as Oxford Instruments serve to illustrate in microcosm the problems facing even the most successful businesses in a fast-changing world economy.

For instance, no-one makes any secret of the fact that European orders would be hit hard if the euro crisis became more acute and of course if that happened even Chinese orders would be affected since it in turn exports finished products back to Europe.

As chief executive, Mr Flint publicly sets out targets for the company to reach, a little like governments set out targets such as inflation forecasts — but with this difference: he meets his.

He told me: “Investors like targets. In 2006 we announced that we planned to double the size of the company by 2011. And we achieved that objective.

“Now we are seven months into our 14 cubed growth plan under which we shall achieve 14 per cent growth in revenue and profit each year until 2014. Now progress is in line to reach those objectives.”

The achievement since 2006 is the more impressive since, in the previous year, when Mr Flint became chief executive, the company had made a £900,000 loss, forcing it to close its Eynsham plant and shed hundreds of jobs.

The company then radically changed the focus of the its activities. Since it was founded by Sir Martin and Lady Wood in 1959 it had concentrated on producing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems used in hospitals to new areas including specialised products for the nanotechnology and biotech markets.

Now the firm supplies both industrial and research markets with its products and know how, as well as running its own research and development team. In the six months to September it increased its cash spend by 42 per cent to £10.5m.

Also in the six months the firm completed two acquisitions: Omnicron, in Frankfurt, which produces advanced microscopes, and US Omniprobe which produces tools to give customers nano-scale lab capabilities within electron- microscopes.

Just after this, in October, Oxford Instruments also bought up US Platinum Medical Imaging in a move that proves the firm has not abandoned its roots: Platinum Imaging provides parts and services for MRI — which is where Oxford Instruments began.