Tubing group hails £5m taxi supply deal

Worcestershire tube manipulation company, Tricorn Group, has secured a £5m contract to supply parts for the new electric black cab being produced in the Midlands by the London Electric Vehicle Company.

The Malvern-based group announced in its interim results statement that its Maxpower Automotive subsidiary had secured a long term agreement with Ansty Park-based LEVC – formerly London Taxi Company – to supply brake pipe assemblies for the new TX eCity electric taxi.

The deal is expected to generate around £5m of revenue over the length of the contract.

The West Bromwich-based subsidiary has also seen further expansion of its rotary welding capabilities to support the increasing demand for rigid hydraulic tube assemblies which the group said now represented a significant proportion of overall revenue.

Maxpower is one of four brands operated by Tricorn; the others being MTC, Franklin Tubular Products and Minguang-Tricorn Tubular Products.

Revenue rose 28.4% over the period to £11.427m (H1 2016: £8.900m).

Underlying pre-tax profit at £0.370m was said to be in line with the board’s expectations and substantially ahead of the corresponding period last year (H1 2016: £0.004m).

The group said it anticipated full year results would also be in line with expectations, especially with its Chinese joint venture making a strong contribution.

Andrew Moss, chairman of Tricorn, commented: “The group has made significant progress through the reporting period with all businesses benefitting from improved end markets and the impact of new business wins.

“The group’s strategy to build a business capable of supporting a global customer base across the UK, USA and China has created significant opportunities to expand our existing relationships and to develop business with new customers.

“Our focus on securing long term agreements with blue chip OEMs is proving successful and over the past three years we have announced long term agreements with four major customers amounting to aggregate revenue in excess of £25m. We are further encouraged by the pipeline of new opportunities and, therefore, continue to invest in our worldwide manufacturing capabilities.”