Orders rise 31% for 600 Group
PRECISION engineering products manufacturer 600 Group saw orders rise by almost a third in the first quarter of the financial year, the company revealed today.
The sustained improvement in orders from the second half of the previous year is another positive sign for the company which recently announced it had managed to halve its operating losses despite a fall in revenue.
Later this month 600 Group shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on a loan deal that would see Haddeo Partners, which owns around 28% of the firm, lending £2.5m.
In a stockmarket update this morning, the company said 600 Group directors “regard the loan as being important to the funding of the Group’s future development”.
If the loan is approved, it will be used to support growth of the group’s machine tools and laser marking businesses and to increase its manufacturing capacity in Europe.
The company implemented a turnaround strategy in the wake of a tough 2009 and recently announced a return to operating profit ahead of an expected upturn in the machine tools market next year.
The 600 Group, based in Leeds, is the UK’s largest machine tool company and sells its products in more than 180 countries.
