North electronics manufacturer Filtronic has seen profits jump following a strong year in which it landed significant contract wins with customers including SpaceX.
The NETPark business, which designs and manufactures products for the aerospace, defence, telecoms infrastructure and low earth orbit space markets, has posted full year results for the year ended May 31, in which revenues jumped 56% to £25.4m on the back of major deals. The firm said that its stronger sales mix, with a lower concentration of revenue from telecommunications infrastructure, led to an operating profit of £3.6m – a huge leap on the 2023 figure of £200,000 – and adjusted Ebitda of £4.9m, up from £1.3m.
The group, which now has 133 employees across its bases in Sedgefield and Leeds, closed the year with a “growing, healthy” cash balance of £7.2m, up on last year’s £2.6m, as well access to its undrawn, £3m working capital debt facility with Barclays. The main highlight of the year was the signing of a five-year strategic partnership with SpaceX, a market leader in low earth orbit space communications, and that deal has since led to a £7.1m follow-on order to support the US rocket firm’s Starlink satellites.
Other highlights include a £3.2m contract with the European Space Agency to develop a series of mmWave products, and contract wins from strategic target clients, BAE Maritime Services and QinetiQ, for £4.5m and £2.0m respectively for radar systems. In May, Filtronic also won the King’s award for Enterprise in Innovation.
Jonathan Neale, chairman, said the successful year gives it a strong basis for the future, while underscoring the importance of attracting the right talent at a time when skilled engineers are in short supply.
He said: “Contract wins in FY2024 require us to expand the group’s engineering and manufacturing operations into our growing sales orderbook. At the same time as we develop our electronic communications products and technology in the low earth orbit space sector, we have ambitions to do more in the defence, aerospace and security sectors.
“These markets have very similar needs and problems of integrating high volumes of sensors and data whilst making that data available securely, quickly and at large scale to end users. When we review what our core business is and what is adjacent market opportunity this is shifting gradually over time, and we have shown the ability to pivot when the opportunities have arisen.
“Behind the scenes, our technology roadmaps remain robust. The underpinning engineering and manufacturing capability, that are future facing, remain the focus of our investment plans enabling us to bid confidently into high value opportunities.
“The UK is still short of skilled engineers and technicians, but this is a feature of the economic environment and neither new, nor a surprise. We will have to work hard to compete to attract talent, but we are excited to be able to offer exciting career opportunities to both experienced engineers and leaders as well as younger people in the early stage of their career.”
Chief executive Nat Edington added: “Alongside the growth opportunities for the business generated from the SpaceX partnership, our pipeline with other customers and in other focus markets is also healthy and increasing, providing good growth opportunities across our markets and customer base.
“Business plans for FY2025 and beyond reflect our confidence. We have a dynamic and proactive culture that is highly motivated to drive the company forward and deliver excellence in all aspects of our business. We have invested in the long-term future of the business by building our IP portfolio and strengthening our business development and engineering teams. I am excited to be leading the business through the next exciting phase of growth.”
Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber
