Weaker pound pays dividends for Midlands manufacturer
FASTENINGS manufacturer Trifast has said its half year performance has been boosted by the weaker pound.
The company, which has a presence in Birmingham, derives around half of its revenue from outside the UK so it was looking to capitalise on the strengthening demand for its products.
In a trading update ahead of its interims, it said: “Three months on since the EU Referendum, we are pleased to report that the positive trend dynamics for Trifast have been reassuringly sustained resulting in our business units across the group experiencing continued good organic growth on a constant currency basis.
“Consequently, this trend is enabling us to boost our ongoing global investment objectives covering the specific areas of people, skills training, production and automated quality inspection equipment.”
To this end, the group has expanded its European presence, opening a greenfield distribution and technical centre in Barcelona. The focus of the operation is on the burgeoning Tier 1 automotive sector, an industry that continues to be an important growth driver for the group.
Overall, it said the business remained “solidly on track” in terms of organic growth performance and capital investment objectives, despite widespread general economic concerns arising from Brexit.
At the end of the half-year period, the group settled the deferred consideration payment of €1.7m due to the owners of its German acquisition Kuhlmann Befestigungselemente & Co, which it acquired in October last year.
The hunt for further suitable acquisition continues, however, finding the right business is proving problematic.
“While our strict target criteria continues to limit choice, it considerably mitigates risk,” it added.
The group will publish its results for six months to September 30, 2016 on November 8.
“We remain confident in our future prospects as we continue to execute our strategy and look forward to updating shareholders further on our performance in November,” it said.
