After coming back from the dead and then going like a train for the past four years, global digital TV technology group Pace plc had the City types running round like headless chickens last week.

Pace shares tumbled by 40 per cent on news that profits were likely to be lower this year after a tougher first quarter.

It was the first blip in the Saltaire-based firm’s relentless growth under ebullient chief executive Neil Gaydon, who has led the company’s impressive fight back to become the world’s number one set-top box provider.

Pace’s past troubles were caused largely by not being able to deliver its products to the right place at the right time. Mindful of this, and in a market where a shortage of IT components has been an issue for more than a year, Pace has been stocking up and so has pushed up its costs.

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan, where many components originate, has further dented supply as industries in that beleaguered country try and get back on their feet – the disaster has also caused short-time working at several Japanese-owned UK car factories.

Pace also saw margins in Europe narrow and suffered the postponement until 2012 of a major order from the United States.

It also announced that, due to a lack of demand, its Networks division had been closed as a separate business and subsumed back into the Pace Enterprise gateway and software business, with around 20 engineers being redeployed.

All in all, a tough quarter which had analysts and commentators sharpening their knives and calling for heads to roll. Barmy.

There was muttering that Pace directors had sent mixed messages to the City (shock, horror!) and one particularly patronising and snide comment piece in the Financial Times hinting that once set-top boxes are integrated into TV sets, then Pace’s goose would be cooked. Rot.

This is a company that has transformed itself and is one of Bradford’s commercial jewels, employing around 500 highly-skilled people at its Salts Mill global base..

It is already looking at technology trends several years ahead and has extended its product base with software for the wider digital market, including telecommunications and strategic acquisitions in the US to secure its place in that vitally important market.

The furore caused by this less-downbeat update reminds me of another spat between the pinstripes in the Square Mile and a prominent Bradford business figure.

Sir Ken Morrison, when he was running the supermarket business, was renowned for his lack of respect for the ‘City scribblers’. They dumped their full wrath on him and the company after the difficult takeover of Safeway in 2004 which led to the retailer’s one and only loss in its long history.

Morrisons is thriving as the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket, having gained a truly national footprint and valuable real estate from the Safeway deal.

Sir Ken, now a gentleman farmer in North Yorkshire, had the last laugh.