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Gooch & Housego PLC on Tuesday reported a record order book level, as well as a rise in first-half profit.
Gooch & Housego is an Ilminster, Somerset-based maker of photonics components and systems.
The company's order book stood at a record level of £119.9 million as of March 31, up 29% year-on-year from £92.8 million.
For the six months ended on March 31, pretax profit grew 82% to £1.2 million from £670,000.
Revenue, however, was down 7.4% to £54.1 million from £58.5 million a year ago.
Adjusted pretax profit was down 27% to £3.6 million from £4.9 million. This is due to lower volumes and investment in R&D and manufacturing capacity, the company explained.
Statutory pretax profit was helped by restructuring costs falling to £1.4 million from £3.1 million.
In March this year, the company entered in to a five-year term revolving credit facility to support its acquisition strategy.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Webster said: ‘During the first half of the financial year there has been strong demand for the group's technologies and capabilities and our order book has achieved another record level. However, in common with many industrial businesses, revenue was constrained by Covid- related staff absences and supply chain disruption.’
The company declared an interim dividend of 4.7 pence per share, up 4.4% from 4.5p a year ago.
Looking ahead, the company said its full year expectations remain unchanged and long-term outlook remains very strong.
Gooch & Housego shares were up 4.3% at 892.00 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.
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