Avon Rubber banking on second-half pick-up

Avon Rubber, which makes rubber products for the defence industry, said orders from the US Department of Defense for its respirator filters are picking up, but full-year orders will be below last year's level.

The group expects the second half of its financial year, which runs from April to March, will see similar levels of the M50 respirator delivered to the US Department of Defence (DoD) to the first half.

"We expect filter demand to grow as more mask systems are delivered although customer scheduling of filter deliveries remains difficult to predict," the group revealed.

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The Protection & Defence division's full-year order intake is expected to be up 38% on the previous financial year, giving the group improved visibility on revenues from both the DoD and commercial customers for 2013.

The Dairy business, which produces milking equipment, is performing "in line" with expectations.

Net debt at the end of June stood at £10.2m, an improvement on the net debt position of £11.8m at the end of September 2011, reflecting the timing of working capital movements and the significant investment made in product development during the year.

"With improved operational performance from Protection & Defence and the Dairy business performing strongly, we continue to expect that the results for the second half of the year will be stronger than the first half with year on year growth comparable with the level seen during the first half," the company said.

At 8:34 the stock had declined 2.9%.

JH