Chamberlin loses major customer due to early transition

Castings and engineering group Chamberlin said on Monday that it had lost a major customer as a result of volatile demand due to Brexit, Covid-19 and customer safety stock building.

Chamberlin stated that while production levels at its two foundries had remained at or above pre-pandemic levels, its machine shop had now lost its largest contract, representing approximately 75% of its output.

The AIM-listed group was informed by the major client that it would be making an earlier transition to the next product evolution, which had been awarded to another supplier, with ongoing customer orders likely to be "a fraction of the original contract".

Chamberlin said it would be pursuing a claim relating to the earlier than planned transition and added that, in the meantime, all staff in its machine shop had been furloughed.

"The company is taking further mitigating actions to reduce costs during the machine shop temporary shut down, although the financial impact cannot yet be determined," said Chamberlin.

As of 1100 GMT, Chamberlin shares had slumped 11.11% to 10.0p.