GKN improves competitiveness
1 min read
UK manufacturing industry bellwether GKN today (1 March) reported a hike in sales and profits with its restructuring actions having improved competitiveness.
Results for 2010 showed a sales improvement of 22% (£975 million) to £5.4 billion while trading profit rose to £411 million, up a hefty £255 million, reflecting a strong recovery in its automotive Driveline, powder metallurgy and land systems businesses and a good performance in aerospace.
Commenting on the performance, chief executive Sir Kevin Smith (pictured) said: "GKN has continued to make strong progress in financial performance and in building the future of our global market-leading businesses. The trading environment has seen an improving trend for GKN's Driveline, Powder Metallurgy and Land Systems businesses. The aerospace market has remained subdued although civil aerospace is now moving into a strong growth phase with volume increases on existing platforms and new aircraft moving into production.
The Group's restructuring actions have enabled us to improve our competitiveness and margins and the continued focus on cash generation has resulted in a halving of net debt.
"GKN's strong market positions and leading technology and the conclusion of restructuring leave us extremely well positioned for sustainable growth and margin expansion."
Looking ahead, GKN said the outlook for its major markets was positive although some uncertainty remained, particularly around macro-economic conditions.
In automotive, external forecasts suggesedt that global light vehicle production should reach just over 78 million vehicles in 2011, an increase of 5%, with the strongest growth in China and India and continuing market recovery in North America. Production in Western Europe is expected to be broadly flat.
In aerospace, US military aircraft market demand is expected to show a small reduction as the rundown of the F-22 programme and a decrease on the C-17 are partially offset by increases on other programmes. Civil aircraft production is expected to return to growth in 2011 as both Airbus and Boeing increase production schedules.
The markets for Land Systems should continue to improve, with European agricultural equipment, which has been lagging other agricultural markets, forecast to enjoy good growth.
