AGM Statement and trading update

At today’s Annual General Meeting, all resolutions were duly passed.

Michael Rusch, Chairman, made the following comments on current trading:  

“In the Annual Report & Accounts for the year ending 30 September 2009, I reported that approximately £1.7m of anticipated sales had been removed from this year’s turnover as a result of unexpected rescheduling of deliveries against project orders by customers.

“I said then that the first half of the 2010 financial year would be disproportionately affected. The actual effect over the first five months of this financial year is that output is £1.5m behind the budget set in September 2009.

“However, the worst would appear to be behind us in that output recovered during February of this year to almost normal levels and the load for March and the rest of the financial year is at substantially higher levels than February.

“I am pleased to report that orders taken during the first five months of this financial year have exceeded budget by £1.5m, increasing our order book by £1.1m to £17.9m as at February 2010.

“Routine orders for standard products have generally remained buoyant, although Defence and Aerospace business has been slow. As previously reported, however, sub-contract work remains depressed.

“New orders in this period included £1.2m of the long anticipated contracts for Inter-car Jumpers and Lighting for the additional Pendolino Cars and Trains for the West Coast Mainline, which will total almost £2m. This represents an important reference with Alstom in Italy, where the Pendolinos will be built. Further enquiries for lighting, including our LED products, have already been forthcoming.

“Progress has been made in developing LED Lighting markets outside the rail industry, but these developments remain at an early stage.

“To what extent the damage caused by the rescheduling of contract deliveries from the first half of the 2010 financial year can be mitigated in the second half for the year as a whole still remains unclear, however, we remain confident that progress will be made from this low point in recent performance.

“I will report further on this with the half-yearly report for the six months ending 31 March 2010, which the Company will announce in June 2010.”

4 March 2010

ENQUIRIES: