Filtronic slips into loss as demand weakens

The Shipley-based firm, which was spun out of Leeds University in the 1970s, made an operating loss before exceptional items of 300,000, compared to a profit of 2.1m in 2009, and revenue from continuing operations almost halved from 28.8m to 15.6m.

Its operating profit after exceptional items was 1.2m in 2009.

Announcing its preliminary results for the year ended 31 May, Filtronic said that while the underlying drivers underpinning the market for its products were intact it was expecting demand to remain constrained over the summer.

Filtronic is to buy Leeds-based Isotek as it tries to establish a place in the market for mobile telephone base stations that provide the 3G and 4G services used by the latest smartphones.

Chairman Howard Ford said: "Whilst overheads have been trimmed the group continues to invest in R&D in order to position the company with competitive products to respond to a recovery in market demand.

"December's announcement of a major new customer signing is testament to the Group's product offering and service levels, and positions us well to benefit from market expectations of a 2011 demand recovery.

"The recently announced proposal to acquire Isotek (Holdings) Limited is in line with our strategy to create a differentiated, high growth and higher margin wireless telecoms business."

An annual dividend of 1p per share was recommended in line with the prior year.