Surface Transforms confident after disruption

SURFACE TRANSFORMS, the Ellesmere Port manufacturer of high performance ceramic brakes, is back on track after a year of “highs and lows”.

The company’s European distributor Mov’It International went into administration in March and orders from a brake manufacturer on the Continent were disrupted. This knocked £242,000 of the full-year sales figure.

But the company said today that Mov’It was now trading again as a subsidiary of Schuler and orders from the European buyer were back up to 2011-12 levels.

“Moreover good progress is being made with both new and on-going ‘game changer’ customers who should lead to volume production in due course,” said chairman David Bundred.

In March it agreed a deal to supply its technology to a “major” global manufacturer of clutch and transmission systems. It said this would generate revenue of £660,000 over the next 12 months and there is an option to sell more equipment and technology worth £1m.

In the year to the end of May pre-losses were static at £640,000 on revenues of £1.1m, up 6%. An exceptional cost of £72,000 pushed the group to an overall pre-tax loss of £712,000.