Manufacturer revises profit forecasts upwards after strong six months

Luceco, the Telford wiring accessories manufacturer and distributor, has said this morning (October 20) has said this morning that its profits for 2020 will be well ahead of expections.

The firm said it was revising profit expectations up from £23 to between £28-30m on the back of better-than-expected revenues in October.

Luceco now expects revenues to also exceed forecasts to at least equal last year’s £172.1m, with the ground lost to the Covid-19 pandemic in the first half of the year fully recovered.

John Hornby, chief executive, said: “Ongoing improvement in gross margin, tight control of overheads and a relatively buoyant UK home improvement market combined to deliver record profits in the third quarter.

“Although we start the final quarter with a degree of uncertainty from the impact of a second wave of COVID and recently reintroduced social distancing measures in our key markets, strong trading momentum and a healthy order book mean that we now expect significant additional progress to be made in full year adjusted operating profit and adjusted operating margin, as reflected in our latest guidance.”