Hampson remains cautious on aerospace tooling recovery
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The newly re-financed international aerospace group Hampson Industries today (6 April) reinforced its view that signs of recovery in tooling demand were encouraging but it remained cautious until it saw clear evidence of this trend being sustained. In a trading update, the group which has manufacturing facilities in the UK, North America and India, said that although tooling revenues had been lower than anticipated during the final quarter, to the end of March, it expected annual profits to meet market expectations.
Further new orders for composite wing and fuselage tooling had been secured, notably in respect of Airbus A350 and Bombardier CSeries programmes. However, Hampson said that delays had continued to be experienced in the provision of engineering data by customers for several programmes currently in backlog and revenue for the final quarter would therefore be slightly lower than previously expected. The impact of these delays had been partially mitigated by rapid action to reduce costs and lower working capital. Headcount had been reduced by 18% at the Group's largest tooling operation during the final quarter which would generate savings of over £1 million a year. A number of initiatives had also been deployed to improve operational effectiveness to world-class levels.
Hampson's automotive turbocharger business had continued to recover and performed better than expected with order book strengthening and a number of new products on the drawing board. Nevertheless, the company said it continued to review options for the business, which it regards as a non-core element of the its portfolio.
Looking ahead, Hampson said the outcome for the year to 31 March 2011 would be dependent on receiving strong intake in the next few months and no further delays in the release by customers of final design data on a number of major programmes currently in backlog.
The group also took the opportunity of the update to announce that its group chief executive of 10 years is to step down with effect from 31 July.
Chairman Chris Geoghegan said: "Kim leaves Hampson after a long period of dedicated service having overseen the Group's transformation into a focused, international aerospace group with two global leadership positions. He leaves with the Board's best wishes."
