Renishaw profits battered

29th Jul 2009 11:01

Engineer Renishaw watched full-year profits plunge 89% as revenue tumbled due to a marked downturn in the second half.Pre-tax profit for the year ended 30 June fell to £4.7m from £43.1m in 2008 on revenue down 15% to £171.2m from £201.2m last time. Second half revenue slumped 37% to £68.9m.The company axed 437 jobs, or 20% of its workforce, during the period to make annual cost savings of £17m. But the redundancy programme cost £4.1m.Staff also agreed to a voluntary pay reduction of 20%, or £1.25m a month, until the end of 2009. Renishaw is also trying to cut overhead spend by £10m a year."Current activity levels are showing some signs of an improvement, but we do not anticipate returning to profitability until the second quarter of this financial year," said the firm.There's no final dividend.