Renold H1 revenues drop, highlights 'resilient performance' amid Covid-19

Power transmission products supplier Renold delivered a "resilient performance" in the first half of its trading year despite markets being "significantly impacted" by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Renold said on Friday that it had remained profitable throughout the period and achieved a significant reduction in net debt of £10.2m to £26.4m, despite seeing sales revenue drop 17% year-on-year to £82m.

The AIM-listed group stated it had continued to benefit from a combination of improvement in its strategic cost base and productivity gains made in recent years, together with tactical short-term cost-saving measures, which enabled it to achieve a positive operating margin for the half.

As a result of the impact of global shutdowns and lower levels of demand across a number of markets, Renold did note that order intake was down 21% year-on-year during the period and came to £76.0m. However, the firm added that trends towards the end of the period seemed to indicate that order intake should continue to slowly improve, albeit at levels below the prior year.

"Whilst considerable uncertainty remains, Renold benefits from significant geographic, customer and sector diversification. The group's ongoing focus on cost control, operational efficiency, productivity, and cash management is helping to offset the subdued demand and should enable the group to make continued strategic progress in the second half," said Renold.

As of 0955 BST, Renold shares were down 2.46% at 11.17p.