A boost in orders for its protection equipment and higher sales of its dairy products should combine to give Avon Rubber, the West Wiltshire-based specialist manufacturer, a stronger second-half, it said today.
The group, which has its head office and main UK plant at Semington, near Melksham, said investment in its brands, product development and distribution during the period between April1 and yesterday had paid off.
As a result the business as a whole – whose products span respirators for civil defence and military personnel to milking equipment for the dairy industry – had progressed, the group said in an interim statement today.
Full year order intake for Avon’s protection & defence division is now expected to be up 38% on the previous year with a significant element of this for delivery in future years.
Orders in hand from the US Department of Defense (DoD) will allow the division to deliver similar volumes of its M50 respirator in the second half of its 2012 financial year to the first half.
Spare filter deliveries to the DoD also accelerated during the period although the overall level of filter orders will be below that achieved in the previous year.
Avon said in the statement: “We expect filter demand to grow as more mask systems are delivered although customer scheduling of filter deliveries remains difficult to predict.”
Project Fusion, the group’s new program to expand and enhance its product range, remained on track to provide further organic growth from 2013/14.
The dairy division achieved higher sales of its Milk-Rite brand and its sales and distribution centre in China progressed in line with expectations.
Net debt at June 30 was £10.2m – £1.6m lower than at September 30, reflecting the timing of working capital movements and the significant investment made in product development during the year.
Looking ahead, the statement said: “With improved operational performance from protection & defence and the dairy business performing strongly, we continue to expect that the results for the second half of the year will be stronger than the first half with year on year growth comparable with the level seen during the first half.”
