Decent figures for Foseco owner

CERAMICS and foundry company the Cookson Group has reported performance improvement in 2011.

Cookson, which owns the Foseco ceramics operation in Tamworth, has seen revenue increase by 1% to £2,862m and a trading profit of £290.2m, an increase of 15 per cent on 2010’s figure.

Nearly 50 per cent of the group’s revenue now comes from higher growth developing countries.

Commenting on the group’s results and outlook, chief executive Nick Salmon, said: “Both our engineered ceramics and performance materials divisions have strong global market positions with significant developing market exposure, are well invested with strong product development pipelines, and have moved increasingly to a model where the emphasis is on selling on the basis of added value.”

The group’s profile will be further enhanced by the disposal, announced last week, of the loss-making US precious metals processing business.

“While the macro-economic outlook remains uncertain, customer feedback and third party indicators continue to point to mid-single digit global growth in our core end-markets for 2012,” Salmon said.