Filtronic slips to loss as revenue slumps

WIRELESS communications firm Filtronic is hoping investing in research will help it recover after reporting a pre-tax loss of £1m.

The Shipley-based company made an operating loss before exceptional items of £300,000 and saw revenue from continuing operations almost halve from £28.8m to £15.6m. The group made a pre-tax profit of £2.2m last year.

Filtronic said that it had seen a weakening in demand from a major customer in the second half of the year and while the underlying drivers underpinning the market for its products were intact it was expecting demand to remain constrained over the summer.

The results were announced just days after Filtronic revealed it is to buy Leeds-based Isotek as it tries to establish a place in the market for mobile telephone base stations that provide the 3G and 4G services used by the latest smartphones.

Filtronic chairman Howard Ford said: “Whilst overheads have been trimmed the group continues to invest in R&D in order to position the company with competitive products to respond to a recovery in market demand.
 
“December’s announcement of a major new customer signing is testament to the Group’s product offering and service levels, and positions us well to benefit from market expectations of a 2011 demand recovery.

“The recently announced proposal to acquire Isotek (Holdings) Limited is in line with our strategy to create a differentiated, high growth and higher margin wireless telecoms business.” 

The company board has agreed to pay a dividend of 1p, the same figure as 2009.