Revenue at metrology equipment maker Renishaw was £331.9m for the year ending June 30, 2012, a 15% rise on last year’s £288.7m.
Renishaw’s profit before tax for the year was £86m, compared with £80.4m last year (excluding a £1.7m exceptional item), an increase of 7%.
Sales increased across all regions as the Gloucestershire-based firm, which manufactures measurement and testing equipment used for metal cutting, executes its plans to increase exports. Revenue rose by 18% to £76.8m in the Americas, 14% in the Far East to £130.2m and 12% in a struggling European marketplace to £95.7m.
Sales in the Far East recovered in the final quarter of the year after slower than expected growth, principally due to revenue from China.
There was strong domestic growth with a 28% rise in UK sales, totalling £18.9m in the 12 months to 30 June 2012.
Headcount at the end of June 2012 was 2,904, an increase of 229 during the year. There are currently 182 staff vacancies in the Group, of which 118 are in the UK, with the company stating that, like other UK engineering companies, it is continuing to experience difficulty in recruiting high calibre engineers.
Revenue from Renishaw’s metrology business stood at £305.8m, compared with £267m last year, an increase of 15%. Operating profit was £91.8m, compared with £87.7m in 2011.
Renishaw’s acquisition of shares in Measurement Devices (MDL) and MTT Investments (the latter now operating as the additive manufacturing product line) in the company’s previous financial year supported growth in the machine tool and calibration products line. A spokesperson said that the Equator, a high-speed comparative gauging machine for inspection of high-volume manufactured parts, is slowly gaining wider exposure and acceptance.
An additional 17% shareholding in MDL was acquired by Renishaw in June, bringing the company’s shareholding to 66%.
New product releases during the period include the Resolute ETR, an absolute encoder with extended temperature range for operation in very cold environments such as aerospace, the XR20-W rotary axis calibrator and the REVO SFP1 surface finish probe and a multi-axis option for the company’s Productivity+ software. Encoder products experienced a slowdown during the year but showed improvement in the final quarter.
Renishaw acquired Thomas Engineering and Construction, a measurement device distributor and services provider based in Canada, on 3 February 2012 for £700,000.
It also acquired R&R Sales LLC, a US-based supplier of fixtures for the measurement and inspection market, for the sum of £2.6m on 26 April 2012. These acquisitions will support the companies exports around the world, providing fixturing solutions for its Equator gauge and other products.
Renishaw refocused part of the healthcare activities to a smaller number of projects, particularly its neurological products line, and withdrew from the supply of radio frequency coils for use in MRI scanning research.
The continuing significant expenditure on research and development in this segment resulted in an operating loss of £8.6m, compared with a loss of £8.4m for last year. Renishaw is targeting that the Healthcare segment will move into profit in the next two years.
Renishaw invested £30.3m on facilities, plant and machinery and information technology capacity during the year.
It completed its purchase of the premises at Miskin, South Wales In September 2011, with 68,500 sq ft of the 461,000 sq ft site being refurbished and new CNC machine tools brought into production.
In Dublin, planning consent has been received for a 26,000 sq ft extension of Renishaw’s manufacturing facility. This is due to be completed by the end of this calendar year.
Sir David McMurtry and John Deer, co-founders of Renishaw, were awarded the international physics Swan medal by the Institute of Physics in June.
