Avon Protection shares jump as second-half trading accelerates

Shares in Avon Protection jumped 8% on Friday after the "mission-critical solutions" group said trading in the second half had picked up, with order book growth and higher underlying earnings.

The company, which makes respiratory and hazard protection headwear for the militaries and first responders, said that the order book was up 10% by the end of the fiscal year to 30 September, with strong demand for helmets offsetting expected softness in respiratory demand.

"We now have $59m of outstanding orders for Next Generation Integrated Head Protection System ("NG IHPS") helmets and have recently received a further delivery order valued at over $7m for the Advanced Combat Helmet GEN II ("ACH GEN II"), bringing total outstanding orders for this helmet to over $20m," the company said in a statement.

Revenues excluding armour were significantly higher than the first half after the successful ramp-up of the NG IHPS programme, encouraging sales of the new EPIC range of helmets and shipment of a previously announced large mask order.

Full-year results are said to be in line with expectations.

"We are now seeing more reliable financial performance as a result of our actions to strengthen the business by increasing accountability and improving operations and programme management," said chief executive Jos Sclater.

By midday, the stock was up 7.9% at 722p, taking the weekly rise to nearly 19% – though it still remains down 33% since the start of the year.