REG - Gooch & Housego PLC - AGM Trading Update

Gooch & HousegoAnnouncement

24/02/2025 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250224:nRSX1756Ya&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 1756Y  Gooch & Housego PLC  24 February 2025

 

     24 February 2025

 

Gooch & Housego PLC

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

 

AGM Trading Update

 

"Further order book growth underpins improving trading performance"

 

 

Gooch & Housego PLC (AIM: GHH), the specialist manufacturer of photonic
components & systems, will hold its Annual General Meeting at 11.00 a.m.
today at the Company's headquarters in Ilminster, Somerset.

 

Since the beginning of the financial year the Group's order book, including
Phoenix Optical ("Phoenix") acquired at the end of October 2024, has increased
to £126.4m (30 September 2024: £104.5m) supported by strong order intake for
medical diagnostic instrument programmes and new orders for defence optics and
subsea data networks. The Group is also responding to a growing number of
requests from our A&D customers for high value quotations for periscope,
sighting and countermeasure systems.

 

The Group continues to execute on its strategic objectives. Operational
efficiency improvements are supporting the delivery of additional capacity
from our own facilities and our contract manufacturing partners provide the
Group with further flexibility to respond efficiently to changes in customer
demand.

 

The integration of Phoenix is proceeding to plan. The business has increased
the size of its order book since joining G&H reflecting increased
confidence from its customers who are seeing Phoenix's ability to service
additional levels of demand thanks to the operational support that the Group
is able to provide. We continue to monitor the market for further bolt-on
acquisition opportunities, in line with the Board's strict criteria, to
accelerate our sustainable margin growth strategy.

 

The Group is closely monitoring the impact of new tariffs being implemented by
the US administration and the retaliatory responses from the countries
affected. Whilst the Group has low levels of direct procurement into its US
facilities from China, Mexico and Canada there may be some indirect
inflationary cost base impacts. We intend to pass those on to our customers in
the form of price increases. We are also alert to any potential supply chain
disruptions caused by China limiting the export of certain materials that are
used in the manufacture of our products in response to the new tariff regime.
Our supply chain and engineering teams are working to identify alternative
sources for those materials.

 

As previously reported, the recovery in our semiconductor and industrial laser
markets remains slow. We continue to expect those markets to recover in the
second half of this calendar year and to contribute to the Group's trading in
our fourth quarter. We are starting to see the level of customer orders
improve in several of our Industrial sub-markets but the recovery is not yet
broadly based.

 

In the first four months of the year the Group has reduced its working capital
levels. As a result of the acquisition of the Phoenix business net bank debt
at the end of January 2025 increased to £19.2m (30 September 2024: £16.0m)
with £1.1m of the increase in the four-month period the result of currency
exchange movements. Lease liabilities totalled £10.2m (30 September 2024:
£9.9m).

 

Despite the macro-economic and geopolitical outlook continuing to remain
uncertain, the Group's growing order book, strong pipeline of accretive new
business opportunities and the success of our self-help measures provide good
visibility and confidence for G&H going forward. Assuming the Group is
successful in navigating the changing tariff landscape, the Board's
expectations for FY2025 trading remain unchanged.

 

Charlie Peppiatt, Chief Executive Officer of Gooch and Housego, commented:

"I am pleased to see the increase in the Group's order book since the
beginning of the year. It is clear the focus on delivering our strategic plan
through improved customer experience, superior operational execution and value
creating technology is starting to bear fruit. Whilst we are mindful of the
uncertainty that new tariff regimes are introducing across several of our end
markets, we remain positive that the Group will deliver a significantly
improved financial performance in FY2025. The Group is strongly positioned in
attractive growth markets and well placed to benefit as its industrial markets
return to growth."

For further information please contact:

 

 Charlie Peppiatt, Chief Executive Officer                  Gooch & Housego PLC      +44 (0) 1460 256440

 Chris Jewell, Chief Financial Officer

 Mark Court / Sophie Wills / Abigail Gilchrist              Burson Buchanan          +44 (0) 20 7466 5000

 G&H@buchanan.uk.com (mailto:G&H@buchanan.uk.com)

 Christopher Baird / David Anderson                         Investec Bank plc        +44 (0) 20 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.

 

The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on
behalf of the Company is Chris Jewell, Chief Financial Officer.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  TSTPPUWUPUPAPUW