Defence contracts boost Pressure Technologies

The Sheffield-based firm said it has seen an improved trading performance after important management and operational changes within the business over the course of the year.

Chief executive Chris Walters said the outlook for the Chesterfield Special Cylinders division is strong in established UK and export defence programmes and further recurring revenue growth is forecast.

"A lot of this is the BAE Systems Dreadnought programme. So we saw significant work on that project in the first half of the year," he said.

The Dreadnought Programme will deliver four submarines to the Royal Navy for £31bn, with the first one ready for patrol in the 2030s.

"We've also had a good year in export contracts as well, so it's projects in Germany, France and South Korea," added Mr Walters.

Group revenue rose 34 per cent to £28m in the year to September 28, while adjusted operating profit more than doubled to £2.2m. The group made a pre-tax loss of £500,000, an improvement on the £1.7m loss the previous year.

The firm reported a pick up in the oil and gas market.

"In particular we've seen momentum within our Precision Machined Components division - demand for specialist components for deep water development, offshore production and exploration," said Mr Walters.

"We have also seen an improvement in oil and gas affecting our cylinders business. So we've had demand for offshore drilling units and new construction projects in Singapore.

"We see the outlook in oil and gas continuing through 2020, which looks like it will be an even stronger year than 2019."

Precision Machined Components orders reached the highest level for over five years in the year to November 2019, with record contract awards contributing to a divisional order book 70 per cent higher than a year ago.

"An established customer placed the largest ever contract in November. It's a contract for recurring monthly revenues of specialist parts. We are very pleased to have that order," Mr Walters said.

He added that the group is confident about the future.

"The market itself is improving, but it's not just for us to ride that wave of improving market conditions," he said.

"We've invested very significantly in new customer acquisitions over the course of the last year. We've taken a lot of new customers and we've extended our range of products.

"The idea is to take a larger, increasing share of the growing market."