Spectris FY profits up 12% on US recovery, acquisitions

Industrial instruments maker Spectris Group on Monday said full year pre-tax profit rose 12% to £218.4m, lifted by acquisitions and a recovery in US and key market demand.

Revenues were up 13% to £1.53bn, or 6% on a like-for-like basis. The final dividend was increased by 9% to 56.5p.

“Our performance in 2017 was good with like-for-like increases in both sales and profit as we executed on our strategy, and helped by a recovery in the US and certain key end markets,” said chief executive John O'Higgins.

He added that in the current year Spectris expected to see the benefit of organic sales growth, partly offset by the investment in strategic growth initiatives and foreign currency exchange headwinds.

“We remain focused on increasing productivity and reducing complexity through 'Project Uplift'. The magnitude and phasing of the benefits and costs from this programme have varied from those originally envisaged, primarily due to a re-scoping of the IT project,” O'Higgins said.

“As a result, we now expect Phase 1 to deliver annual savings of £25m at a total cost of £35m over the period to the end of 2019.”