In Brief: Carapods; Tracsis; Filtronic; Hitachi Personal Finance
A YORKSHIRE business is on a mission to change the future of the traditional caravan with a new concept in teardrop design and manufacture.
Carapods, a Beverley-based business established by cousins Leigh Hardy and James Spooner, launched their business last year and have recently moved to new premises on Beverley Business Park. The teardrop design creates a model in the shape of a sideways teardrop and are popular in the States.
Most of the materials used by Carapods are sourced locally with components also assembled in East Yorkshire.
Spooner said: “Our ethos is to keep things local. The aluminium, which is the main core of the pod itself, comes from Hull, the CNC, the process of cutting out the side panels and furniture using a larger computersied router, is done in Wawne, our wood supplier is from Hull and the painting and upholstering are done here in Beverley.”
The business is now looking to the future and, as well as increasing the number of orders, is considering the possibility of taking on further staff in order to concentrate time on developing new designs.
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TRANSPORT data software company Tracsis today said it expects both revenue and profit to be significantly ahead of current market forecasts for the year ending July 31 2014.
As a result of strong trading across all areas of the group, the board expects full year revenue to be in excess of £20m, the Leeds-based business said.
John McArthur, chief executive officer, said: “The group continues to perform well and this has been buoyed by record levels of investment into UK rail to cope with an ever increasing demand for services. We believe public transport, particularly rail, is set for further significant growth in order to meet the capacity and performance challenges that will be placed on it in the years ahead. Tracsis is well placed to benefit from this growth.”
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MICROWAVE electronics manufacturer Filtronic said it expects the group’s full year 2015 performance will now be considerably lower than current market expectations.
Following the end of its financial year to May 31 2014, Leeds-headquartered Filtronic, the designer and manufacturer of microwave electronics products for the wireless telecoms infrastructure market, said this morning that during the final quarter of the financial year, both the Wireless and Broadband businesses traded in line with the board’s expectations, delivering full year unaudited revenues of £23m (2013: £31m) and £9.7m (2013: £8.1m) respectively. Broadband has also continued to grow revenues for its new E Band radio products.
However, the repositioning strategy is likely to push out the board’s earlier expectations for the timing of the growth trajectory of the Wireless business by approximately 12 months and, as a consequence, the board expects the group’s performance will now be considerably lower than current market expectations.
The results for the financial year ended May 31 2014 will be announced next month.
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PEOPLE in Yorkshire are the least confident about the economy in the UK according to a study by Hitachi Personal Finance.
Just 26% of people in Yorkshire describe the economy as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, pushing it behind Wales (28%) where only eight per cent felt the same in December 2013.
The eight per cent rise in confidence in Yorkshire falls below the national rise of 12% and leaves the region far short of confidence levels elsewhere such as 42% in London and 35% in the South and Scotland.
People in Yorkshire however suffered a six per cent drop in confidence in their own personal finances during the same period, with just 45 per cent describing them as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ now, while the North East remained static and the North West dropped two per cent.
The Chancellor’s Budget in March upgraded growth estimates for 2014 from 2.4 per cent in December to 2.7 per cent and YouGov reported the highest level of consumer confidence in almost seven years in May.
Hitachi Personal Finance managing director Gerald Grimes said: “Despite improved confidence in the economic recovery, this data also shows old regional divisions persist.
“Yorkshire is recovering but it’s a far more fragile recovery that may take longer.”
