Profits soar by 34 per cent at Bath manufacturer

Profits have soared by 34 per cent at manufacturer Rotork as stability returned to international oil and gas market.

The Bath firm specialises in hydraulic and electric systems and has customers across the world.

Rotork said in the first half of the year operating profit increased by 34 per cent to £59m.

During the same period revenue was up by 19.5 per cent to £334m.

Kiet Huynh, chief executive, said:  “I’m pleased with our performance in the first half, in particular with double-digit year-on-year growth in orders and sales, the improvement in operating margin and the progress made under the Growth+ strategy.

“The outlook for all our divisions is positive and we entered the second half with a record order book. Whilst mindful of residual supply chain challenges, we anticipate delivering further progress in 2023 in line with expectations on an OCC basis.”

Order intake increased 13.8 per cent year-on-year to £386.9m  All three divisions booked higher orders, with Oil & Gas and Water & Power strongly ahead.

Oil & Gas order intake was the largest it has been in a six-month period since 2019. Orders, which overall continue to be driven predominantly by customers’ operational spend, included more large orders than seen for some time.

Whilst the period saw benefits from supply chain improvement measures, the supply chain challenges faced in recent years have not entirely disappeared.

During the period the group experienced disruption to the supply of semi-finished components such as circuit boards.

Rotork is working together with its suppliers to improve availability and saw some improvement in deliveries towards the end of the period.