Goodwin (GDWN) has been "working like mad", in the words of chairman John Goodwin, to sell more of its mechanical engineering products to anywhere other than the troubled oil and gas sector. But this diversification cannot come fast enough.
The company's main mechanical engineering division, which designs valves and related products, saw orders from the core oil and gas engineering market fall by nearly a third in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. And, although this situation improved over the year, profit was still 15 per cent lower for the reported period than it was a year earlier. Management points to increasing demand from the military nuclear sector, but exposure to its traditional market has only been reduced from 50 per cent of sales to around 45 per cent thus far.