Business
Interim Management Statement
Interim Management Statement.
About this update from Avon Technologies Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 3512O Avon Rubber PLC 06 August 2014 \n\nStrictly embargoed until 07:00 Wednesday 6 August 2014\n \nAVON RUBBER p.l.c. (\"Avon\", the \"Group\" or the \"Company\")\n \nInterim Management Statement for the period 1 April 2014 to 5 August 2014\n \nIntroduction\nAvon is pleased to report that trading has continued to be strong since the end of the first half of our financial year. The Board remains confident that the outturn for the full year, after the impact of an estimated £1.0m currency headwind, will be in line with market expectations.\n \nProtection & Defence\nThe Protection & Defence business has experienced another buoyant period. Further orders worth £25m from the DoD since the half year secure expected sales to this customer for the current financial year and provide a healthy opening order book for next year. We have also seen an increased level of non-DoD orders from customers in the Americas, in particular in the fire services market for our newly approved Deltair SCBA. \n \nWe are pleased to announce that we are the first supplier to receive approval for our closed circuit escape breathing device (EEBD) under the new NIOSH standard. This approval is an essential requirement under a solicitation by the US Navy which we expect to respond to later this calendar year.\n \nDairy\nMarket conditions for our Dairy business remain favourable and the investments made in 2013 are now delivering the benefits we expected. In particular our cluster exchange service offering continues to gain momentum in both North America and Europe and we have seen positive third quarter trading in our Chinese business after a slow first half of the year.\n \nForeign exchange translation sensitivity\nThe Group has a number of US operations and the translation of US$ profits into sterling on consolidation exposes us to foreign exchange translation differences. The average rate of exchange in 2013 was $1.56 / £1. If the current rate of $1.69 / £1 prevails for the remainder of our financial year, the average rate for 2014 is estimated to be $1.67 / £1, and would give rise to a negative currency translation variance compared with 2013 of £1.0m at a profit before tax level. \n \nLawrenceville facility relocation\nThe relocation of operations from our Lawrenceville facility t...