Engineering manufacturer Renishaw has slightly lowered its full-year guidance after an uptick in revenue at the start of this year, which put a gloss on what was a difficult trading period in the previous six months.
First quarter revenue at the firm, which makes high-tech tools and measuring systems, was £172.4m, 4 per cent above the average in the first two quarters.
Its manufacturing technologies division performed particularly well, up to £162.5m from £154.3m and £156.3m in the previous two quarters.
However, taking a look at the three quarters as a whole, revenue was down 4 per cent on the previous nine months from £522.0m to £502.9m. This led to an even steeper fall in adjusted profit before tax of 22 per cent, down to £86.8m from £111.8m.
The FTSE 250 firm attributed these falls to necessary rises in employee pay and currency impacts.
Consequently, the engineering outfit has slightly lowered its expectations for the year. It has raised its anticipated revenue from £675m and £715m to £680m and 700m.
Expected profit has also been adjusted slightly down, from between £122m and £147m to £122m and £135m.
Renishaw, which recently announced it had provided input into team GB’s cycling team, will hold its capital markets day on 18 June.