Tech manufacturer Filtronic has hailed a profitable and resilient six months, despite a “very disruptive” trading environment.
The firm makes antennas and filters for the telecoms market from three bases - its largest in Sedgefield, County Durham, alongside sites in Yeadon in Leeds, and Maryland, US.
The company posted a slight drop in turnover for the six months ended November 30 2020, with group sales coming in at £7.1m, compared to £7.5m, which it said was in line with management expectations.
It said revenue was impacted by a slowdown in sales to the public safety market and a slower than anticipated switch by its lead customer from one generation of 5G transceiver to its next generation Morpheus platform.
The slowdown was partially offset by stronger sales in the defence and aerospace market, which helped deliver operating profit of £100,000, down on last year’s £300,000, but it chalked up the same adjusted EBITDA figure of £600,000.
Contract wins during the six month included a £4.9m follow-on order for a two-year defence contract to a European defence equipment supplier for the manufacturing of advanced radar transmit-receive modules.
After the period-end it also secured a £1m deal with a new 海角视频 defence customer, for the development and supply of battlefield radio communications hardware.
A new “best-in-class” Tower Top Amplifier, launched in May 2020, also started to gain traction, bringing in initial sales in November.
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Chairman Reg Gott said: “I am pleased to report, in this very disruptive trading environment, that the group continues to operate resiliently, and despite the previously announced programme reschedules at the start of the period, we have successfully delivered a profitable EBITDA and H1 FY2021 performance comparable with H1 FY2020.”
The firm said it had remained fully operational throughout the Covid crisis, meeting all customer product and engineering programme delivery obligations, resulting in all orders being fulfilled.
In his report Mr Gott said the largest operating site at Sedgefield was independently audited in October by Make 海角视频 and declared Covid-Safe, “validating the excellent work undertaken by our Covid Business Continuity Team to keep the business running within a safe operating environment for employees”.
He said the pandemic has significantly constrained new business acquisition activities and to counter this, it has been developing other ways to engage with new customers, by strengthened sales channels in North America and looking to appoint further representatives to increase coverage of the North American and European markets and gain access to new clients.
Looking ahead, he added: “A strengthening orderbook, improving customer forecasts and recent contract wins position us well for growth and profitability in H2 FY2021.
“Whilst the impact of Covid-19 on the outlook remains uncertain, the fundamentals of the group remain intact with year-on-year growth of EBITDA anticipated for FY2021 despite the disruption we are seeing in the wider economy.
“The broadening of the customer base is the key strategic objective of the group but with travel restrictions constraining commercial engagement this has proved more challenging to achieve.
“Despite this, the Group has actively progressed its strategy to develop the channels to market across multiple territories and is currently in the early stages of executing the marketing plan to raise the profile of the Company and build the brand in existing and adjacent markets.”