Chamberlin sees significant improvement in second half

Specialist castings and engineering group Chamberlin updated the market on its trading for the financial year ended 31 March on Thursday, reporting that it delivered a “significantly improved” second half performance as expected.

The AIM-traded company said that reflected the progress made towards resolving the technical problems at the new machine shop.

Underlying earnings before interest and tax had moved from a loss in the first half to a profit in the second half, and EBIT for the full year was expected to be around £0.4m, which was ahead of current market expectations.

Revenues in the second half were 10% higher than in the first half, and were expected to total £37.7m for the year - an increase of 17% over the last financial year.

“The technical issues at the company's new machining facility continue to improve, and production of petrol engine turbocharger components at the Walsall foundry is progressively increasing, in line with strong demand,” the board said in its statement.

“New products for machining are also being introduced.”

The board said it intended to publish its preliminary results in early June, when a further update on current trading would also be provided.