Image source: © 2025 Krish Capital Pty. Ltd.

Highlights

  • CAR’s year-to-date trading performance aligns with management expectations across business units.
  • Net debt increased by GBP 5.1m due to defined benefit pension scheme payment in April 2025.
  • CTP Manufacturing Solutions and Speciality segments report underlying sales growth and maintained margins.

Carclo plc (LSE:CAR) is a public company listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. The Group designs, industrialises, and manufactures precision engineering solutions for Life Sciences, Aerospace, and Safety & Security markets.

Carclo released a trading update ahead of its AGM on 26 September 2025. The Group stated that year-to-date trading performance is in line with management expectations. Both CTP Manufacturing Solutions and the Speciality business showed positive underlying growth, excluding the effect of exchange rate movements. Lower revenue from the Design and Engineering (D&E) segment, together with foreign exchange impacts from the boost in sterling, resulted in slightly lower overall revenues. Operating cash flow is in line with expectations. Net debt increased from the year-end position, primarily due to a GBP 5.1m payment into the defined benefit pension scheme in April 2025. Capital expenditure and working capital remained toward the lower end of the target range of 5% to 7.5% of sales.

CTP Manufacturing Solutions
The strategic realignment of the CTP Manufacturing Solutions portfolio was completed in the first half of the prior financial year, with final exits of non-core short-run product lines in September 2024. The US operations consolidated into Pennsylvania, with the new management team and production cells reporting improved operational performance and resource utilisation. The US business recorded underlying sales growth before currency translation. EMEA operations showed steady top-line growth, while the UK operations focused on high-volume, automated solutions with medium-volume runs in Czechia. In Asia Pacific, China operations performed above expectations in sales and margin delivery, while India recorded below-forecast sales due to lower demand from a key customer. New business in India is expected to offset this shortfall in the second half of the year.

CTP Design and Engineering
CTP D&E revenue year-to-date was below expectations in the US, while EMEA project activity exceeded prior year performance. The D&E team focused on asset revitalisation and efficiency improvements within the global manufacturing platform.

Speciality Business
The Speciality business recorded revenue growth, supported by demand from the aerospace sector and specialist machining. Additional capacity was added, including the first new CNC machine operational at the French facility.

Outlook
The Board expects D&E revenues to partially recover in the second half, while margin performance across all segments is expected to remain consistent. The update reflects ongoing performance, cash flow management, and operational activity within each business segment.