West Lothian's Calnex Solutions tops market hopes with maiden full-year results

Calnex Solutions, the West Lothian technology business that in 2020 became the first Scottish stock market flotation in two years, has reported forecast-beating sales in an “exceptional year” for the company.

Revenues jumped by 31 per cent to £18 million as a result of a robust trading performance, exceeding initial expectations for the year.

Underlying earnings were up 32 per cent to £5.5m in the 12 months to the end of March, while adjusted profit before tax increased by 43 per cent to £5.1m.

The firm pointed to strong order levels “across the board” with all regional and product line targets exceeded. It said it had seen little negative impact from the pandemic on business, customer base or supply chain, although there has been a change in spending patterns from some key customers, with some orders brought forward.

Founder and chief executive Tommy Cook said it had been an 'exceptional year' for Calnex. Picture: Peter Devlin

Linlithgow-based Calnex provides test instrumentation equipment to some of the world’s biggest telecoms companies.

Founder and chief executive Tommy Cook told investors: “In what has been an exceptional year for Calnex, I am delighted to present the group’s maiden full-year results.

“Not only did the group experience growth across all product lines and achieve sales of £18m, exceeding our initial expectations for the year, but we succeeded in delivering this strong performance whilst navigating the global pandemic and starting our next chapter as a public company.

“Looking ahead, the underlying market growth drivers provide us with confidence that the long-term demand for telecoms test and measurement instrumentation and solutions will continue to expand.”

He added: “We are confident that our breadth of product offering, depth of customer relationships and the strong underlying market drivers mean Calnex is well positioned and we anticipate that results in [the current financial year] will be consistent with [2020/21], representing further growth when taking into account the impact of Covid-19 on [2020/21] through accelerated revenues and travel savings.

“We see a significant opportunity for both organic and acquisitive growth in the medium term and look to the future with confidence.”

During the year, the firm completed a successful fundraise of £22.5m, including net funds of £4.9m for the business on admission to the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) on October 5.

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