Spectris reported sales up but LFL sales decline

Precision instruments maker Spectris reported a drop in like-for-like sales in a trading update for 1 January to 30 April, but reported sales grew thanks to acquisitions.

Reported sales increased by 2% in the period, supported by acquisitions, while LFL sales dropped 4%.

By region, LFL sales rose 2% in Asia Pacific, whilst sales to North America, Europe and Rest of the World fell by 4%, 8% and 11% respectively.

The FTSE 250 company said it was making good progress implementing the targeted restructuring measures announced last July.

Chief executive John O’Higgins said: “Trading conditions in the period continued to be challenging. Within this environment we remain focused on implementing our targeted restructuring programmes. The benefits of these, together with our operational excellence initiatives, will enable us to better align our cost growth to sales growth in 2016.

“Whilst we have limited visibility on trading, we have good end-market and geographic diversification and will benefit from our self-help actions to improve future profitability.”

O’Higgins said the outlook for this year was unchanged and Spectris is well positioned for the future.