(Alliance News) - Focusrite PLC said Friday its demand has remained strong in the first half, leading to revenue expectations ahead of internal forecasts.
Shares in the music and audio products group were 9.3% higher on Friday morning at 1,070.00 pence each.
Focusrite expects revenue for the six months to February 28 to be in excess of GBP90 million, up from GBP49.9 million the year before.
"Cash generation has also remained correspondingly strong and the group has now cleared all bank debt," the company added.
It continued: "Overall, revenue, profits and cash for the group are currently ahead of where the board would expect them to be at this stage of the financial year and it is therefore likely that current market expectations for the financial year ending August 31, 2021 will be exceeded."
Despite the sharp growth, Focusrite said it remains conscious of factors that could potentially hurt its supply lines, in particular the global shortage of semi-conductors and other components reported by many manufacturers of consumer electronics.
Chief Executive Tim Carroll said: "We are delighted that consumer demand for Focusrite and ADAM products has remained very high. This has resulted in increased demand from the distributors and dealers, which has translated into strong sales momentum producing higher revenues, profits and cash generation in the first half of the financial year.
"How this demand may be affected by the easing of lockdowns around the world is hard to judge although we do expect Martin Audio to rebound as live events restart. The component supply situation is being caused by huge global demand for consumer electronics products. We believe that the constraint will be temporary and our relatively high volumes and excellent contract manufacturers have helped us to continue to satisfy that demand so far, but this remains a risk we are monitoring closely."
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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Focusrite (TUNE)