Firstly, the company has confirmed that trading in the first five months of the current fiscal year is inline with analyst estimates ahead of the release of interim results on Tuesday 10 November 2015. In fact, the business has delivered its strongest trading performance since being formed over 40 years ago with encouraging progress being reported across all regions and underpinned by a strong pipeline of work. True, the Chinese economic slowdown could have an impact on global markets, but Trifast’s sales within and into China only amount to 5 per cent of its total revenue which means the business is not overly exposed to the region. So although I am certainly not complacent, I am not that concerned either with the impact on Trifast’s business from the slowdown in China.
More important is the growth opportunity for the company elsewhere as the board scales up Trifast’s presence in what remains a fragmented market sector by adding niche, well run businesses to its portfolio. Strategically it makes sense to do so as market research indicates that global demand for mechanical fasteners will continue to rise over the next five years, so the market backdrop remains positive. Bearing this in mind, even though Trifast operates from 26 locations in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and North America, the company still only has less than one per cent of the global industrial fastener market.