Automotive tech firm AB Dynamics to exceed £100 million turnover

Published by

Peter Davison

AB Dynamics' GST2 dummy vehicle

Turnover at automotive tech firm AB Dynamics is to exceed £100 million after a better-than-anticipated performance in the second half of the financial year for the first time, the firm told investors yesterday (Thursday).

Bradford on Avon based AB Dynamics is one of the world's leading specialists in automotive test systems.

In 2021 it launched the world’s fastest self-propelled soft target for advanced vehicle testing - moving dummy vehicles in front of moving production cars to evaluate their vehicle collision detection and crash mitigation systems.

The tests are designed to reproduce real-world driving scenarios on vehicle test tracks, and are essential in the development of driver assistance technology.

The firm counts the top 25 global vehicle manufacturers, all seven Euro NCAP laboratories and numerous government test authorities among its customers.

"Following a strong performance in H1, the Group is pleased to report that trading momentum was sustained during the second half of the year," said CEO Dr James Routh.

"The Group saw continued good performance in the track testing sector and particularly strong growth in the laboratory testing and simulation sector, which benefitted from an earlier than expected delivery of a large, high margin contract.

"Further progress has also been made through FY23 in developing the ABD Solutions offering. In addition to the significant organic growth achieved, a strong performance was delivered by Ansible Motion, the simulator business acquired during the year.

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"In light of the better than anticipated trading in the latter part of the year, the Board expects revenue for FY23 to exceed £100 million for the first time.

"Enhanced by the significant productivity and capability investment made over recent years, the strong revenue growth is anticipated to translate into a full year adjusted operating profit result that is above the top end of the range of current market expectations."

Profits are expected to be between £14.7 million and £15.9 million.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.