Engineering firm sees profits halved and warns of delayed effect of vaccine roll-out

Meggitt, the Ansty company specialising in high performance components and sub-systems for the aerospace, defence and energy markets, has warned that it could be some time before the vaccine roll-out feeds through to market activity.

In a trading update this morning (January 15), the firm said that it expects profits for 2020 to be between the £180m-£200m mark, with revenues forecast to come in around the £1.7bn mark. These figures in 2019 were £370.3m and £2.27bn respectively.

A statement from Meggitt said: “The recent launch and roll-out of vaccines, coupled with pent-up demand for air travel, provides a supportive backdrop for the recovery in civil aerospace in 2021. However, given the logistical challenges associated with a global vaccine roll-out, we expect this positive development will take time to feed through into growth in flight and passenger numbers and aftermarket activity levels.

“As a result of the work we have done in 2020 to reposition the group and our diverse end market exposure across civil aerospace, defence and energy, we remain well placed for the recovery.”

Meggitt will release its full-year 2020 results on March 4.