Revenues rise by £16m at advanced manufacturing firm  

Advanced manufacturing firm Gooch & Housego saw revenues rise by £16m in the second half of the year.

The Ilminster firm, which designs and manufacturers components for the defence, telecoms and life sciences sectors, saw revenues rise to £71m in the first half of the financial year.

The company said it has made good progress in adding additional capacity to its production facilities.

As a result output levels have increased and the company made steady progress in reducing the level of its overdue order book.

The increase in revenues was helped by favourable exchange rate movements and price increases introduced to offset cost input inflation.

The company added that progress with recruitment and improvements in supply chain mean trading this year will be more evenly weighted between the two halves of the financial year.

New orders for semiconductor, data communications and next generation industrial laser markets have continued to be strong.

Requests for quotations for the replenishment of equipment that has been deployed into Ukraine are accelerating and these are expected to convert into new orders in the near future.

At the end of March Gooch and Housego’s order book stood at £124.4m an increase of 3.8 per cent.

In order to remain competitive in the employment market the firm has made further upward adjustments to salary levels.

Chief executive Charlie Peppiatt said: “I am pleased with the progress that has been made in the first half of the financial year with increasing operational output to better address the demand for our products as well as continued positive levels of customer engagement on next generation programmes and new product opportunities in all our main end markets.

“This is thanks to the hard work of our employees across the group and means we are well placed to meet management’s expectations for the full year.

“We are on track with our review of the group strategy and expect to be able to provide more information along with the interim results in June 2023.”