Strong start of the year for Cheltenham based Spirax Sarco

Published by

Nicky Godding

Thermal energy management and niche pumping specialist, Spirax‐Sarco Engineering plc, has reported that organic sales grew the first four months of the year.

Its fluid technology business Watson-Marlow continued to experience exceptional COVID-19 vaccine related demand from its customers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. In the first four months of the year, organic growth of Watson-Marlow's sales to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector outperformed its anticipated growth of 35 per cent for 2021. Across the Group's other revenue streams in Steam Specialties, Electric Thermal Solutions and Watson-Marlow's Process Industries sectors, organic sales growth was ahead of industrial production over the same period.

The global macro-economic environment continued to improve during the first quarter of the year. Compared with the same period of 2020, global Industrial Production expanded 7.4 per cent, up from 6.1 per cent forecasted at the time of our preliminary results in March.

However, the company warned that COVID-19 continues to disrupt global supply chains, leading to escalation in raw material and freight costs, although both remain within its expectations. During the first four months of the year, it accelerated its revenue investments to support future organic growth and trading margin expansion, although the increase in expenditure lagged sales growth over the period. The Group operating profit margin in the first four months of the year was higher than previously anticipated for the full year 2021, supported by the strong sales growth and higher operational gearing.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.