Carclo upbeat as its mobile phone programme moves close to launch

The Ossett, West Yorkshire-based company, which has a diverse range of products including lighting for supercars and blood testing equipment, said it is confident for the full year and has a strong balance sheet.

The group warned delays to the launch of two supercar programmes, affecting production at its Wipac car lighting division, will help skew profits towards the second half of its financial year.

"It's specific models of supercars that have not quite hit the market on time," said chief executive Ian Williamson. "The programmes are going to happen – two programmes are looking at delays of four to eight months."

But Carclo said higher sales across its technical plastics division will more than offset these delays.

"The group continues to trade in line with the board's expectations for the full year and the results for the period to September 30 will reflect an encouraging start to the year," said Carclo.

"Our businesses are performing well, the group's financial position is strong and the board remains confident in the outlook for the full year."

Last year the group's Conductive Inkjet Technology (CIT) division signed a deal worth up to $1m with US electronics heavyweight Atmel Corporation to develop and launch a new touch screen for use in mobile phones.

CIT prints 'invisible' metal lines on plastic products such as touch screens and medical sensors and the agreement was based on its patented photolithographic metallisation film.

Carclo said CIT has installed a new production line at its Cambridge facility to produce the touch screen sensors, triggering a $250,000 payment.

"Everything is on track," said Mr Williamson. "We are working with a couple of major phone players. At the moment the focus is on the high end element of the market."

He expects the line to be ready for production in eight weeks, but full production to begin in March.

Analysts at house brokers Brewin Dolphin said: "The investment risk in CIT appears to be consistently reducing; the production line has now been installed in Cambridge which triggers the second staged payment from Atmel."

Shares climbed almost four per cent to 176.5p and Brewin maintained a hold recommendation.

"Beyond this, we see significant potential upside to the share price from the further commercialisation of CIT," said Brewin analysts.