Checkit Regulatory News (CKT)

Elektron Technology plc

Year-end trading and operations update

Elektron Technology plc (AIM: EKT, "Elektron" or the "Group"), the global technology group, provides an update on trading performance for the full year to 31 January 2012, including progress on the streamlining of its UK operations.

Sales are proving resilient against the current backdrop of the economic slowdown in Europe, whilst the Group continues to make good progress in the Americas. However, sales and profits for the year are likely to be towards the lower end of market expectations, following the strong performance in the prior financial year.

Elektron has continued to build its product development capabilities at its new Technology Centre in Cambridge and to invest in new growth opportunities, consolidating and realigning its resources for greatest commercial impact. A single IT system is now used to control activities on four continents for over 50% of the Group's business, and will be rolled out to Elektron's other operations over the next 18 months.

The Group is further streamlining its UK operations and is closing and consolidating three major leased sites. The office in Romford is now closed and its activities have transferred to Cambridge and Stansted. Elektron is also announcing that its existing factory in Torquay will become the Group's new UK centre for high tech manufacturing. Activities at the Redhill and West Molesey factories will relocate to Torquay over the next 12 - 18 months, as the leases on those sites expire. 

Savings in occupancy costs from the site closures are expected to exceed £0.8m per annum and when complete, the streamlining programme is expected to yield savings in excess of £2m per annum. The cost of streamlining the business is expected to total £4.3m over a two year period, including approximately £0.8m of capital expenditure. Exceptional charges are expected to total £3.5m, with a little more than half of the expense recorded in 2011/12. 

Consistent with the Group's new integrated organisation, from today, most of Elektron's UK operations will trade as a single legal entity.

John Wilson Chief Executive Officer of Elektron commented

"We are encouraged by the resilience of our sales performance, despite the poor economic data and sovereign debt issues affecting Europe, which is our largest international market.

"Our increasingly focussed organisation, upgraded capabilities and investment in new systems will provide a robust platform for the future. We will continue to invest in our portfolio of market leading brands."

Elektron expects to release its full year results on 12 April 2012.

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Notes to Editors

Elektron Technology is a global designer and manufacturer of fast moving engineered products, the precision engineered components that enable three of the most important technology areas of the always-on, networked economy: Monitoring & Control, Connectivity and Precision Instrumentation.

The Group has a broad portfolio of products that are recognised leaders in their markets, playing a critical role in many industries from underwater construction to food preparation, semiconductor manufacture to emergency vehicle systems. They result from a commercially focused, customer-led new product development process centred on the Group's Technology Centre based in Cambridge. The Group's products are sold worldwide to 7,000 customers; 100,000 end-users, and used in all 7 continents and in space.

Elektron Technology is headquartered in Cambridge and traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.