(Alliance News) – Hardide PLC on Wednesday said that while it remains mindful of economic headwinds, it was confident of further returns in the new year after reporting an annual revenue increase.
Hardide is an Oxfordshire, England-based developer and provider of advanced surface coating technology. It makes advanced tungsten carbide and tungsten metal matrix composite coatings, which increase the life of critical metal parts operating in abrasive, erosive, corrosive and chemically aggressive environments.
For the year ended September 30, the company reported revenue of GBP5.0 million, up 39% from GBP3.6 million a year prior.
It narrowed its pretax loss to GBP2.3 million from GBP2.9 million. It also markedly trimmed its loss in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to GBP900,000 from GBP1.5 million the year before.
Hardide noted revenue growth across all end-use market sectors, particularly in energy, which represented 57% of financial 2022 sales. The sector saw a 72% overall increase in the period, comprising a 54% increase to the oil & gas sector, and an over-six fold increase to power generation.
Industrial revenue grew 10% on increased demand from a manufacturer of industrial pumps, while aerospace grew 24% on production orders from Airbus.
Hardide also said it was pursuing “significant business development opportunities” in the green energy and electric vehicle markets, including wind and solar power, hydrogen generation and battery production applications.
Looking ahead, the company said it has received full supplier approval from Leonardo Helicopters to coat flying parts, as well as first production orders for helicopter transmission system components.
It has also recently implemented a series of working capital efficiency and cost reduction initiatives, which it expects to generate a further GBP300,000 to GBP400,000 of cash during the first half of the current calendar year.
Hardide said this would help provide additional headroom, thus improving profitability.
“Whilst the board is mindful of economic headwinds, ongoing cost inflation and supply chain disruption, Hardide has been successful in recovering cost increases through selling prices, and revenues continue to grow from increasing customer adoption of our coatings. As evidenced by the recent action taken to improve working capital and reduce cost, the board is focused on becoming profitable and cash generative,” said Chief Executive Officer Philip Kirkham.
“More broadly, the board is seeking opportunities to drive significant value for shareholders and other stakeholders over the medium to longer term through further development and commercialisation of the group’s unique high performance coatings technology, including co-operation with other coatings companies.”
As at September 30, Hardide had cash in the bank of GBP700,000, down from GBP1.5 million the previous year.
Hardide shares last traded at 13.10 pence each in London.
By Holly Beveridge; Alliance News reporter
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