County Durham-based Filtronic plc said its group revenue for the six months ended November 30, 2024, increased by over 200% on the prior year with sales of £25.6 million amid strong order inflow from SpaceX.
Filtronic is a designer and manufacturer of products for the aerospace, defence, telecoms infrastructure, space and critical communications market.
Operating profit was £6.8 million compared to an operating loss of £400,000 in H1 of 2024.
Filtronic chairman Jonathan Neale said: “We are pleased to communicate these strong set of interim results.
“Robust order intake has resulted in the improved revenue and profit outlook in H2 which we communicated in market upgrades in December 2024 and January 2025.
“Investing in the business to underpin the orderbook has been timely and effective and we look forward to being able to communicate more about the next financial year as things develop during H2“.
In his statement, Neale added: “The Low Earth Orbit (“LEO”) space market remains a driving force for the business with the market still offering further significant growth potential.
“Our strategic partnership with the market leader, SpaceX, continues to strengthen and grow. The success of the relationship has enabled us to deliver at high volume and high quality, working closely with our business and supply chain partners.
“This achievement has enabled both parties to consider further collaboration following the remarkable success of the Starlink constellation.
“We still see LEO space payload as an exciting area for us and we have factored that into our technology road map. As a lead-in project to payload, we have a prestigious programme underway with the European Space Agency (ESA) which is expected to complete over the next year with material revenues still to be recognised in FY2026.
“We were delighted to see our customers, Almagest Space Corporation and XDLINX Space Labs, take our first mmWave product into space on their recently developed satellite using one of our Morpheus X2 E-band transceivers.
“The defence pipeline contains several interesting opportunities particularly within airborne radar systems. Our active programmes, with QinetiQ will substantively complete in FY2025, and with BAE Maritime Systems within FY2026. The UK government’s Strategic Defence Review pushed back the planned timing of a number of prospective opportunities but has not impacted financial forecasts.
“We are pleased to see the UK Government secure the future of the semiconductor foundry at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, safeguarding critical semiconductor components for the UK defence market and providing longevity of supply.
“This creates an opportunity for us to align ourselves with the Defence Industrial Strategy where we can utilise our advanced semiconductor packaging and test capability which we see as essential for sovereign capability and competitiveness.”