7th Jun 2022 12:07
(Alliance News) - 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 GBP119.9 million as of March 31, up 29% year-on-year from GBP92.8 million.
For the six months ended on March 31, pretax profit grew 82% to GBP1.2 million from GBP670,000.
Revenue, however, was down 7.4% to GBP54.1 million from GBP58.5 million a year ago.
Adjusted pretax profit was down 27% to GBP3.6 million from GBP4.9 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 GBP1.4 million from GBP3.1 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.
By Xindi Wei; [email protected]
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