New Executives Report Year of Progress

Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd has published its 2018 financial results following the appointment of a new executive team last year.

The company has overseen a return to profitability in a year of progress and a significant reduction in debt.

For the year ended 31 December 2018, Sheffield Forgemasters recorded revenue of £66.3m (down from £76.1m in 2017) with pre-tax profit of £2.1m (up from £0.2m in 2017) and carries an order book of £160m into 2019.

David Bond, CEO, said: “During my first six months, the business focussed on delivery of highly complex products to the UK and US defence sectors, whilst improving margins in the globally competitive steel processing market. Despite lower revenues, this has supported a return to a modest level of pre-tax profitability for 2018, and allows us to further develop the business in 2019.

“We have renewed our plans to grow our market reach for premium products and design consultancy in complex engineering applications, helping to drive future margins and profitability. Our technical capability and reputation for innovation is a key market differentiator and demands we maintain our skill base through our apprenticeship programme, research and development efforts and investment in the latest manufacturing technology.”

The company has reported a significant reduction in net debt from £31.8m to £20.3m in the year,, following an extension of our lending facilities with Wells Fargo in November to 30 April 2020.

Steve Hammell, CFO, said: “A strict focus on cash management has allowed us to successfully reverse the trend of rising debt levels in the business despite maintaining levels of capital expenditure. We recently extended our lending facilities with a £40m limit and the debt reduction achieved provides financial headroom to accelerate investment in 2019 for the longer-term benefit of our customers and employees.”

The company has also launched a transformation programme to deliver improvements in new business capture, operational effectiveness and cost competitiveness.

Paul Cahill, COO, who is leading the programme, added: “It’s a wide-ranging programme, building on our renowned strengths, to ensure we have the right capabilities and levels of operational performance to succeed in the long-term.”

David Bond concluded: “We are all collaboratively committed at Forgemasters to driving further improvements in the business as we look to the next phase in the company’s development.”