Strong trading at Redditch tech component company Solid State
A record year of trading at Redditch-based Solid State has buoyed confidence in the company.
Revenues and profits are expected to be ahead of expectations thanks to deliveries made this year rather than in the expected 2025.
Gary Marsh, Chief Executive Officer, said: "I'm delighted that the Group continues to show excellent resilience and the benefits of our divisional balance and sector focus against head winds in certain parts of the business. While we continue to take a prudent approach to managing expectations for the year ahead, I take comfort that our underlying business remains robust, balanced and I take great pride from the scale of orders that we have delivered during the course of what has been a record year."
Solid State's systems division has had an exceptionally strong year, with revenues approximately 80 per cent ahead of prior year, due mainly to high demand from customers in the security and defence sectors.
The revenue delivered earlier than previously expected was driven by customer requirements for communications products to be shipped as soon as they are available, reflecting their operational requirements.
In the company's components division, after exceptional demand of last year, and like others within the sector, the Group is seeing component lead times reduce, with customers moving to more normalised levels of stocking. This is resulting in a continued slowdown in the industrial sector, with some customers pushing out schedules through 2024.
The Group expects to have a strong orderbook with the orderbook expected to be at least 55 per cent of next year's current consensus billings and shorter lead times across the Group enable more efficient conversion of new orders into billings.
Solid State says it has also secured new mid-term opportunities with multiple tier one security and defence customers, anchored by a key customer, for which it will need to invest in and expand its "Integrated Systems" production capabilities.
