Spectris PLC on Thursday said higher sales led to a surge in its annual profit.

The London-based supplier of high-tech instruments, test equipment and software for industrial applications said pretax profit grew 23% in 2023 to £185.6 million from £151.5 million the year before.

This was driven by a 9.0% increase in revenue to £1.45 billion from £1.33 billion the year before.

Spectris declared a dividend of 79.2 pence per share, which is a 5.0% increase from 75.4p in 2022.

Looking ahead, Spectris said it expects to ‘deliver another year of further progress in 2024’. It noted that progress is expected to be weighted in the second half of the year.

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Heath said: ‘We made further, excellent progress in 2023, delivering another year of double-digit sales growth, record profit and an operating margin in excess of 18%. But we are far from done. The combination of the improved quality of the group, our strong self-help story and the significant opportunities that lie ahead gives me great confidence in our future prospects, with the delivery of further margin expansion in 2024 providing another step towards margins in excess of 20%.’

Shares in Spectris fell 3.3% to 3,489.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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