Half Year Trading Update

RNS Number : 1299U

Gooch & Housego PLC

05 April 2016

 

For immediate release

5 April 2016

Gooch & Housego PLC

("G&H" or the "Company")

Half Year Trading Update

"Full year trading remains in line with management's expectations"

Gooch & Housego PLC (AIM: GHH), the specialist manufacturer of optical components & systems, announces that trading in the six months to 31 March 2016 was in line with management's revised first half expectations announced in the AGM Trading Update published on 24 February 2016.

The Company expects full year trading to be in line with its expectations, which will see a greater weighting in the second half of the year than the last financial year. 

In our 24 February trading update we reported an improving market for Industrial lasers. Since then we have seen that demand strengthening further, in conjunction with continued strong demand for our fibre based products.  This is reflected in an even more robust order book, which stood at £39.1 million as at 31 March 2016, a 13.1% increase compared with the same time last year.

We continue to expect that a good second half trading performance will be driven by orders for our fibre business, in particular high reliability undersea fibre components, fibre based satellite communications and fibre optic sensing, in addition to a recovering microelectronics sector.

Our adoption of Lean principles and the operational efficiency measures taken in the first half are expected to deliver savings in the second half of the financial year. We will continue to benefit from concentrating our R&D efforts on fewer more productive projects, which combined with enhanced business development support has led to the introduction of more new products.

The Company's Interim Results, for the six months ended 31 March, are expected to be announced on Tuesday 7 June 2016.

Mark Webster, Chief Executive Officer of Gooch & Housego commented:

"Gooch & Housego is well-positioned to benefit from improving market conditions and has the capacity to respond to increasing demand. Our commitment to diversification has enabled us to navigate a challenging period at the beginning of the year and still be in a position to deliver full year expectations. We remain committed to our strategy of diversification and moving up the value chain, whilst continuing to invest in our continuous improvement programme, which will underpin future performance.''

For further information contact: -
Mark Webster / Andrew Boteler	Gooch & Housego PLC	01460 256440
Mark Court / Sophie Cowles / Catriona Flint	Buchanan	020 7466 5000
Patrick Robb / David Anderson	Investec Bank plc	020 7597 5970

Notes to editors

1.     Gooch & Housego is a photonics technology business headquartered in Ilminster, Somerset, UK with operations in the USA and Europe. A world leader in its field, the company researches, designs, engineers and manufactures advanced photonic systems, components and instrumentation for applications in the Aerospace & Defence, Industrial, Life Sciences and Scientific Research sectors. World leading design, development and manufacturing expertise is offered across a broad range of complementary technologies.

2.     All financial information included in this announcement is sourced from unaudited management accounts and excludes any specific items. This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations or beliefs as well as assumptions about future events.  These are subject to risk factors associated with, amongst other things, the economic and business circumstances occurring from time to time in the countries and sectors in which G&H operates.  It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable but they may be affected by a wide range of variables which could cause actual results, and G&H's plans and objectives, to differ materially from those currently anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.  Investors should not place undue reliance on any such statements. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast.

 

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