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LONDON (Alliance News) - Windar Photonics PLC said Monday its revenue increased sharply in 2018 with record shipped products, but the year was marred by "unexpected challenges".
Shares in the LiDAR sensor manufacturer were down 9.7% at 70.00 pence each.
Windar expects its 2018 total revenue to increase 59% to EUR3.5 million from EUR2.2 million the year before with a record volume of product shipped, totalling EUR3.6 million, increased 80% from EUR2.0 million in 2017.
Despite the annual rise, the company said shortages of certain components in its supply chain in the second half hurt revenue. The shortages hurt Asian market orders, resulting in some not being fully delivered in 2018 and being rolled over into 2019.
Windar said the shortages could be blamed on "longer than expected" running times for new fully automated compression moulding equipment, which has since been resolved. The company said it is confident the supply chain is now capable of supporting a "substantial increase" in order volumes.
"While 2018 had unexpected challenges in fine tuning our external and internal supply chains to support the increasing demand for our products, we have taken action to significantly improve this situation," said Chief Executive Officer Jorgen Korsgaard Jensen. "Therefore, whilst not fully achieving our targets in 2018, based on our current customer projects with Vestas Service and the continued demand from our Asian partners, I expect Windar to maintain growth in line with previous years within the retro-fit market segment in 2019."
The company is guiding for an 89% increase in gross profit to EUR1.7 million from EUR900,000 the year before. Windar's operating costs are expected flat at EUR2.1 million.
The company's order backlog at the end of the year stood at EUR360,000, down from EUR1.2 million.
Jensen added: "In addition, given the significant investments our OEM customers are making to integrate our LiDAR products on various wind turbine platforms, I expect this market segment will begin to act as an additional key growth driver for Windar in the near future. The combination of this with the continued growth of the retro-fit market will help us achieve our ambition to build a strong and profitable company."
Windar expects to release its financial year 2018 results in May.