Aycliffe firm Filtronic expects profit and revenues for the full year to match market expectations after a good spell for both its broadband and wireless businesses.
The electronics company released an interim management statement yesterday for the period from December 1, which indicated that the business was still on track to meet its targets.
The company told the market it believes that “current market estimates for the full-year group revenues and profit will be delivered”.
Filtronic’s products are used in wireless communication equipment and point-to-point communications systems, and its client base includes a range of mobile network operators.
Its base for UK broadband is in Newton Aycliffe and it employs 110 people on Aycliffe Business Park, down from 130 last year.
As reported in today’s Journal, the company expects revenues and profits to beat earlier expectations for the 2012 financial year, coming in somewhere around £12m.
Filtronic had seen a drop in demand on the broadband front after major customer Nera Networks was bought out by Ceragon Networks.
Ceragon makes some of the same products as Filtronic, and Filtronic feared it would suffer a “further significant decline” in the second half of the 2012 financial year.
However, the company’s market update indicated that “demand has been secured for longer than expected”.
It added the Ceragon product volumes were now expected to fall to “residual levels” during the first half of the 2013 financial year.
On the wireless front, the segment continues to make “good progress”, and is pursuing new developments to boost growth in future. The division was boosted by the acquisition of Leeds firm Isotek for £11m last year.
Filtronic is currently in the early stages of helping to roll out a countrywide upgrade to the LTE network in the USA, and views the country as a major growth area.
It told the market that recent orders for the LTE roll out had shown “encouraging signs of increasing demand”.
The company said: “As expected, wireless will deliver further revenue and margin growth in the second half of the 2012 financial year.”
Back in January, Filtronic released its interim results for the six months ending November 30, in which it put its revenue from continuing operations at £10.5m, compared to £8.2m for the previous six months.
It recorded an operating loss of £1.2m before amortisation and exceptional items, compared to a £4.4m loss in the previous six months.
At the time, chairman Howard Ford said the company “remains committed to exploiting new opportunities for broadband technology and driving for new programme wins with innovative base station filters and combiners.”
