Hardide expects pretax profit of £4.9 million, beating market forecasts
Key Facts
Hardide forecast pretax profit for fiscal 2026 would rise to £4.9 million from £200000 the previous year, according to Alliance News coverage of the company's trading update published on AJ Bell. The company's estimate exceeds market expectations for annual pretax profit of £4.6 million. Annual revenue rose to £13.5 million from £6.0 million in fiscal 2025. The company also expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to reach £5.8 million, compared with £1.0 million in the comparative year. Revenue in the final fiscal quarter alone totalled £4.6 million, according to the same coverage. Following the improved profit outlook, Hardide shares rose 3.8% during Wednesday trading, according to Investing.com, in an intraday move.
Results for the first half of fiscal 2026 had shown revenue rising to £4.8 million from £2.8 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, according to the company's interim results presentation. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the half totalled £1.6 million. The company compared those earnings with £0.4 million in the first half of fiscal 2025. On gross profit, Hardide said in its presentation that margins rose "from 54% to 65%". The company attributed the improvement in its first-half gross profit margin to increased capacity utilisation and operating efficiency, alongside higher revenue and earnings during the period.
Hardide operates in specialist coatings used to extend the service life of metal components, according to the description of its business on its official website. The company describes its technology as "advanced tungsten carbide coatings". The group has manufacturing facilities in Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom and Virginia in the United States, spreading its industrial presence across the two countries. As part of a succession of contracts supporting growth, a non-independent research note prepared by Cavendish and published on the company's website in February documented additional orders worth £1.8 million. The note said the orders came from a customer operating in North America's energy sector, and that the company awarding them was the same energy customer that had previously placed orders with Hardide.
On costs, another non-independent Cavendish note, published on Hardide's website in April, addressed the rising cost of tungsten gas used in the company's operations. The note linked the cost increase to stronger demand from the defence sector and Chinese export restrictions. Mitigation measures it cited included increases in selling prices as part of the company's response to these gas cost pressures. It also pointed to internal improvements in operating efficiency among the measures taken to address higher costs. The response also included diversifying gas sourcing, which the note listed alongside pricing and operational measures.
The company is set to announce its annual results in December 2026, according to the official financial calendar published on its website. The calendar lists that month as the provisional date for the annual announcement. It places the annual report for fiscal 2026 in January 2027. The results announcement and annual report thus appear as separate items in the company's financial calendar, each with its own provisional date. Hardide cautions that the dates in its financial calendar are subject to change.