Goodwin PLC on Wednesday said efforts to expand into new markets have successfully delivered strong full-year growth leading the company to lift its dividend.

The Stoke-on-Trent-based engineer said in the year that ended April 30, pretax profit rose 9.4% to £24.2 million from £22.1 million the previous year.

Revenue increased 3.0% to £191.3 million from £185.7 million, while cost of sales fell 3.1% to £113.4 million from £117.0 million.

Goodwin raised its dividend for the year by 16% to 133 pence per share from 115p before.

Net debt was reduced to £42.9 million over the period from £54.6 million at October 31.

Chair Timothy Goodwin said: ‘The continued increase in the performance of the group in the financial year just ended is a result of the hard work and strategy to break into new markets coming to fruition.

‘The profits have again taken a step forward as a direct result of the strategic investments that have been made over the last decade, and particularly the supply of mission-critical, high integrity components to the nuclear waste storage industry and key components for the naval propulsion and hull construction markets from the Mechanical Engineering division.’

Since the new financial year began in May, the company successfully renewed one of its revolving credit facilities, which was due to expire, for a four year term, it noted.

Looking ahead, Goodwin said focus for the future remains on improving cashflow and managing working capital efficiently as business activities increase.

Goodwin shares were down 5.1% to 7,380.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

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