Precision toolmaker Renishaw, one of the West of England’s engineering and exporting success stories, says it should achieve record full-year, pre-tax profits well ahead of market forecasts of around £75m.
The forecast follow a 60% jump in third quarter revenue to £75.6m, announced today, of which £32 million was achieved in March. Pre-tax profits for the nine months to March 31 were £60.3m against £15.5m last year thanks to significant growth in the Far East, particularly China – although sales also grew in other regions.
Cumulative revenue for the period was £204.9m with around 95% coming from export sales – some 69% ahead of the same period last year.
Metrology revenue was up 76% to £190.6m while Healthcare revenue grew 13% to £14.3m.
The impact on revenue of the Japanese earthquake has been minimal, the Wotton-under-Edge-based group said. Its Tokyo office was closed for a short time due to transport disruption but suffered no damage. “Neither sales to customers nor Renishaw’s own supply chain has been significantly affected,” the group said in its nine-month interim report.
Some 285 new employees have been recruited since July “to support growth as well as to continue the development of new products and processes to maintain this growth into the future,” it said. Headcount at the end of March was 2,384, compared with 2,099 at the start of the financial year. There are currently 293 vacancies, 235 in the UK and 58 overseas.
Renishaw also continues to invest significantly in research and development in the Metrology and Healthcare sectors.
Founding chairman and chief executive Sir David McMurtry concluded: “Current activity levels remain strong and broadly in line with the run-rate for the year to date. On this basis, the board looks forward to record results and anticipates that pre-tax profits for the year will be ahead of current market expectations.”
