Volex delivers 'robust' H2 perfromance

Power products supplier Volex said on Thursday that it had delivered "a robust performance" in the second half of the financial year, underpinned by strong demand from customers in the consumer electronics and electric vehicle markets.

Volex said its second-half performance included over $52.0m in revenues from electric vehicle customers, a significant increase of 187% year-on-year, and stated there had also been "an overall stabilisation in demand" from its core medical and industrial markets, as well as healthy year-on-year growth from data centre customers as the trend towards home-working continues.

As a result, the AIM-listed group anticipates revenues for the full year will be ahead of market expectations at a minimum of $440.0m, while underlying operating profit was expected to be at least $41.0m, ahead of its most recently guided range.

Volex added that margins benefited from foreign exchange movements and "favourable commodity pricing" in the first half of the financial year and, although it acknowledged these "unwound in the second half", it had delivered "strong year-on-year margin growth".

Chairman Nat Rothschild said: "Volex delivered a particularly strong end to the period with our resilient business model meeting the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic head-on. Robust demand in the electric vehicle and consumer electronics markets underpinned our performance in the second half and, thanks to our diverse customer base and global footprint, we are well placed to deliver on the next stage of our development as we look to increase investment and grow our business.

"Whilst we are now entering a more challenging inflationary environment, we aim to defend the significant margin gains we have made. Unless future lockdown measures severely disrupt our customers or operations, we are confident of further revenue and profit progression in FY2022."

As of 1335 BST, Volex shares were up 0.27% at 366.0p.