Renold’s romantic results

The half year saw a 16% hike in revenue to £95.2 million (£82.1m) while operating profit increased by a third to £6 million (£4.5m) and post tax profit doubled to £2.8 million (£1.4m), achieving management forecasts despite steel price inflation and global economic turmoil. At the end of October 2008 Renold’s order book was 36% up on October 2007. New orders included a $17 million contract for mass transit couplings from Mitsubishi for New York City Metro. Chairman Matthew Peacock said: "I am pleased to report yet another set of improved financial results for Renold with profit after tax double that of the same period last year. This is a commendable achievement given a more difficult background of input price inflation than envisaged. The development of Renold in India, recent falls in input costs, and the strengthening of the US dollar are all positive for the Group's future prospects." Looking ahead, he said the group benefited from an expanding footprint in low cost, more flexible labour markets and increasing exposure to developing markets, but went on: “Despite this buoyant position, we recognise that we do not operate in isolation from the global economy and therefore temper our outlook for the immediate future. We are acting proactively to ensure that the business is fit for the environment which prevails next year. In the world of smaller orders, Renold explained how Peter Noble turned to it for a solution when the gears used in the back axle of his beloved 1925 Lanchester 40HP Tourer (pictured) failed on a trip to France. The Lanchester brothers had built England’s first motor car in 1895 and their original principles of design and manufacture had continued to near perfection with the 40HP model favoured above Rolls Royce and Daimler by not only Maharajas of India but also English royalty. Everything about the car’s engineering is of massive proportion and if an item could be cast in bronze or solid nickel rather than plated that is how Lanchester preferred to do it. Just short of Clermont-Ferrand in France a thunderous explosion below the mighty Lanchester occurred on a steady incline along the Autoroute. The rear axle worm and wheel had broken causing the car to be abandoned to a transporter and sent home. It would have been more depressing had they known the extent of the damage and even more depressing had they known how difficult it would have been to get another worm and wheel manufactured. M With most gear cutting companies not wanting to do one off jobs or not having the gear cutting equipment or even the technical know-how, getting another worm and wheel manufactured proved difficult until, as Peter put it, “Renold was at first a ray of hope and later a beacon of reality that our beloved Lanchester would once again be travelling those ancient roads in far off places.” Renold improved the metal by cutting the wheel from nickel bronze where Lanchester had used phosphor bronze and instead of the ‘hour-glass’ principle favoured by Lanchester it used the Holroyd parallel worm design. After producing a computer model feeding in the weight of the car, the power of the engine, the gear ratios etc., it gave an estimated life of 100,000 kilometres. The replacement gears have now been fitted into the axle and tested on the UK’s roads prior to a visit to India later in the year.