Morgan Crucible makes progress but has contingency plans to cut costs further

Looking ahead, CEO, Mark Robertshaw (pictured) believed the general economic environment was clearly more difficult than it has been for many years and he expected 2009 to be significantly more challenging than 2008. He said Morgan Crucible had already taken action to reduce costs and had plans in place to mitigate any further falls in demand. In 2008, revenue grew to £835 million (2007: £693m) up 20.5% on the previous year and pre-tax profits improved 15.5% to £82.8 million (£71.7m). The Windsor, Berkshire-based company said the technical ceramics businesses it acquired earlier in 2008 from Carpenter Technology Corporation had performed well with both revenues and profit contribution ahead of expectations and the NP Aerospace investment it acquired in 2007 and lifted to a 60% holding last month, had also performed very well in 2008. Commenting on the results, Robertshaw said Morgan Crucible had made continued progress in the second half of 2008 in the face of increasing macro economic headwinds. “Our well established strategy of moving towards less economically cyclical markets has been successful in reducing the group's exposure to sectors which have come under particular pressure such as automotive, consumer goods and semiconductors,” he went on. “Demand in markets such as defence and medical remained strong which helped to mitigate the softening we saw in those sectors which are linked in to the general industrial cycle.”