THE order book at engineering and automotive consultancy Ricardo remains at over £100m as parts of the business return to pre-recessionary levels, the company reports today.
In a trading update, Ricardo, which has a major innovation centre in Leamington Spa, said the market place remained positive and the pipeline of opportunities was strong as global automotive markets recovered.
“Orders continue to flow from a wide range of countries and across a broad sector base, driven by emissions legislation, CO2 reduction and new product requirements,” it said today ahead of its full year results to be published in September.
“In particular, we are seeing orders returning in the automotive sector with a good range of traditional clients from across the globe. The order book remains at over £100m.”
It says its UK and German businesses are at high levels of utilisation while relationships with key clients in the UK, Europe and Asia continue to develop and are delivering multi-year programmes.
“We are seeing the size of many of these orders returning to pre-recessionary levels,” it added.
“The US division has found the market environment slower to recover this year and as a result, clients in this region are tending to place smaller sized orders.”
Chief executive Dave Shemmans said the firm was confident of further progress in the coming year.
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