Annual General Meeting - Trading Update

30 January 2020

Avon Rubber p.l.c.

Annual General Meeting - Trading Update

A positive start to our 2020 financial year

In advance of its Annual General Meeting being held at 10.30am today, Avon Rubber provides the following trading update for its current financial year ending 30 September 2020.

Outlook

The Board is pleased to report that the Group has enjoyed a positive start to its 2020 financial year, with continued strong order intake in both businesses. The Board therefore remains confident of achieving its expectations for the current financial year.

Avon Protection

Avon Protection has enjoyed a solid start to the year, with order intake up 12% in the first quarter. Strong order intake in its Military business has more than offset the impact of our exit from the Fire self-contained breathing apparatus market.

We expect to receive further follow-on orders in the second quarter from the U.S. Department of Defense under the M69 aircrew mask and M53A1 mask and powered air system contracts.

We also continue to see a strong pipeline of Rest of the World Military and First Responder opportunities to further broaden our customer base across our product portfolio.

As previously announced, our acquisition of 3M's ballistic protection business completed on 2 January 2020. The acquired business performed in line with our expectations in the calendar year 2019 and we remain confident of achieving our expectations for the 2020 financial year.

milkrite | InterPuls

Global dairy market conditions have remained positive in the first quarter of our 2020 financial year. Improving milk prices, together with stable feed prices and production volumes, have led to improved farmer confidence, resulting in orders received in the first quarter up 10% at constant currency. This has supported strong trading for milkrite | InterPuls across all three lines of business. We expect global dairy market conditions to remain positive in the near term and this underpins our confidence in the prospects for the business in the current financial year.

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Note to editors: 

Avon Rubber is an innovative technology group, which designs and produces specialist products and services to maximise the performance and capabilities of its customers. We specialise in life critical personal protection systems, as well as milking point solutions through our two businesses, Avon Protection and milkrite | InterPuls.

Avon Protection is a recognised global leader in respiratory and ballistic protection for the world's Militaries and First Responders.

milkrite | InterPuls is a global leader providing complete milking point solutions to dairy farmers across the world with the aim of improving every farm it touches.

For further information, please visit our website: www.avon-rubber.com.