Avon Rubber (AVON) has had a storming first half, as it reported in a bullish update toward the end of March. The results due to be released on 30 April will be "substantially better" than last year, driven largely by sales of gas masks at higher margins to customers outside the US military.
Management believes full-year adjusted operating profit will now come in at the top end of market estimates, currently about £15.5m. Admittedly, that means numbers at the core protection and defence division will be weighted to the first half - Avon will spend more of the next six months filling lower-margin mask orders for the US army - though there is always the chance of a surprise here. And "modest" progress at Avon’s smaller dairy division, which supplies liners and tubing used to milk cows, is actually a good result, given last year’s strong first quarter.
