Hampson hampered by programme delays

Chief executive Kim Ward, who announced that he will be stepping down on 31 July, said that during 2009/10, Hampson had faced the combined impact of the global financial crisis and well-chronicled development delays in aerospace programmes like those for the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 which are pioneering the use of brand new materials and new construction and assembly techniques for volume manufacture in the global aerospace industry. However, after two and a half years of much publicised delays and technical challenges, the first successful flight of the Dreamliner in December 2009 has confirmed that commercial aircraft made from large carbon structures represented the future reality of aviation. With both this programme and the A350 now reaching greater maturity, Hampson expects that global demand for close tolerance tooling will increase over the next several years. He went on: "As a result of these factors, tooling demand shrank back sharply from the previous year's levels and our revenue saw an inevitable decline after the record performance achieved in 2008/09. This was amplified by the mid-year disposal of our non-core metal aero engine component business, which contributed £18.9 million of net additional revenue in the previous year. "We were also impacted by the global collapse of the business jet market. Volumes on two key programmes reduced by 30% and 50% respectively and one new programme for which we had won contracts to supply tooling and aero structures, was cancelled during the first quarter of 2009/10." During the year, the UK and US-based group said its workforce in respect of continuing businesses has been reduced by 19% during the year. Strategically, Ward said Hampson was increasing its global market share through targeting new international opportunities and was starting to see the early signs of benefit, including the company's first tooling orders into the local Indian and Chinese markets. The company would also continue to focus hard on operational improvement activity, based around world-class systems and processes that will help it drive waste out of the businesses and improve efficiency. Revenue from continuing operations for the year ended 31 March was £178.3 million, down from £256.6 million last time, while adjusted pre-tax profit was £24.9 million, a reduction of £12.8 million (34%) compared with 2008/09.