Hamilton Beach Brands H1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 12, 2024

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Okay. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us here in the room and online for our half year results presentation. With me this morning is the familiar face of our CFO, Gavin Hill. So these results are good, and they would have been even better, but for some weakness in the Healthcare and Life Sciences market. The order book remains strong, giving us good visibility into the second half.

Operator

We've made real inroads into our strategic priorities to improve, rebalance and simplify the business. And all of this reinforces our confidence that we can improve returns from the business in the medium term as we articulated in June. More on that later. Gavin will be taking you through the detail of the results. But first, some highlights from me.

Operator

It was a good first half performance with 10.4% revenue growth coming from both divisions, supported by our market leading differentiated technology. And just to be clear, all the numbers on this slide are at constant currency. The performance has been driven by stronger growth in the market for new materials and even stronger growth in semiconductor, which more than offset the softer Health Care and Life Science market. Operating profit at group level is up 3.6%, driven by a great performance in Imaging and Analysis. They delivered 5.4% profit growth and continued to maintain excellent margins, more than 24%.

Operator

Overall, this division contributes the vast majority of profit for the group. At group level, margin of 16.3%, 110 basis points below last year, as expected, reflects the mix and stronger growth from our Advanced Technologies division, which delivers lower margin and the ongoing investments that we're making. Underlying book to bill is positive at 1.01, and the strong order book continues to provide good visibility into H2. And importantly for the future, the progress we're making on our strategic priorities is starting to have an impact. We are successfully navigating a significant pivot from China, and I'm really pleased to see this reflected in a return to strong growth in the U.

Operator

S. And the progress in the rest of Asia offsetting the anticipated reduction in revenue from the actions we took in China. Across the group, we are streamlining and simplifying our operating model. And we've made strategic hires, including a new Chief Information Officer, a Group Programs Director plus a new leadership team and sales resources in North America. In Imaging and Analysis, we are well underway with wave 1 of our group operational transformation program currently in Belfast.

Operator

Here, we have identified that there was more room for improvement than our initial assessments indicated, which reinforces our confidence of the opportunity I highlighted in June. We made good progress with the turnaround of Advanced Technologies, too, with strong revenue growth and a good order book, underpinning the confidence in a return to profitability for the division in H2. So I'll come back to give you more color, but first, over to Gavin to give you the detail of the results.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Richard, and good morning, everyone. So we've delivered good constant currency revenue growth of 10.4%, as Richard said. A currency headwind of £5,800,000 reduced reported growth down 7.7%. Adjusted operating profit at constant currency grew by 3.6%. However, a currency headwind of £3,900,000 led to reported AOP of £33,900,000 7.1% behind last year.

Speaker 1

Adjusted operating margin at constant currency decreased as anticipated by 110 basis points to 16.3%, reflecting the mix of stronger revenue growth from Advanced Technologies. Reported margin after currency effects decreased by 2 40 basis points to 15%. Adjusting measures include amortization of required intangibles of £4,700,000 Other items include nonrecurring charges of £2,900,000 for business reorganization and transaction costs and the release of contingent consideration of £2,100,000 A credit of £2,700,000 reflects the mark to market movement in the revaluation of forward contracts hedging future cash flows. The effective tax rate has risen to 25.1% due to a change in the geographical mix profits. We expect a full year effective tax rate of 24.5%.

Speaker 1

Good constant currency growth supports an interim dividend of 5.1p, growth of 4.1%. Constant currency revenue increased by 6% for Imaging and Analysis with strong demand for electron microscopy range, offsetting reduced shipments of our imaging and microscopy products due to weakness in Life Science markets. Strong demand for our semiconductor processing systems alongside the achievement of milestones against a large order for cryogenic systems to a key customer for quantum computing applications with constant currency growth of 21.4% for Advanced Technologies. A strengthening of sterling, principally against the U. S.

Speaker 1

Dollar and yen, resulted in a currency headwind of $5,800,000 Imaging and Analysis adjusted operating profit at constant currency increased by 5.4% with strong demand for our electron microscope analyzers, magnetic resonance and Raman imaging systems. This offset lower profits from our Life Science product range. A small increase in the half year loss for Advanced Technologies reflects higher facility running costs and inventory provisioning. I'll now look at each division's performance in turn in a little more detail. We've seen a good performance from the Imaging and Analysis division.

Speaker 1

Revenue grew by 6% at constant currency, with good growth of 12% 39% across Materials Analysis and Semiconductor markets, respectively. We've seen strong demand in the semiconductor market for our range of electron microscopy, Raman and atomic force microscopes, while materials analysis applications across commercial customers have driven good demand for our electron microscope range. OEM destocking and some softness in Life Science markets led to fewer sales of our imaging and microscopy products. In response to weakness in demand, we have removed costs from our Primary Life Science business while also continuing to invest in operational improvements. These actions, combined with the stabilization in orders against the comparative period, are expected to yield an improvement in trading in the second half.

Speaker 1

Underlying book to bill for the division was 1.04x. The adjusted operating profit margin at constant currency was maintained at over 24%. Turning to Advanced Technologies. Good growth across semiconductor has been driven by demand for our compound semiconductor processing systems across industry and academia. Profit growth has been tempered by the absorption of additional costs of the new facility as expected.

Speaker 1

We made good progress against specific milestones on a large set of orders for cryogenic systems for quantum computing applications, driving strong growth within this segment. Within the division, we incurred an increase in inventory provisions following a standardization of provisioning policy across the group. This, along with a currency headwind, resulted in a loss for the division of £2,000,000 against a loss of £500,000 last year. Absent the stock provision, the division would have been a touch above breakeven for the half year. A strong order book for compound semiconductor processing systems and a continuation of milestone achievements and deliveries to the quantum and measurement market support a return to profitability for the full year.

Speaker 1

Looking at the regional split. With total orders in the half year of €225,000,000 our underlying book to bill was 1.01x, normalized for the removal of prior year canceled orders to China. We have delivered good constant currency revenue growth of 11% in Europe, supported by deliveries of our compound semiconductor process systems and adjustment for overstocking from some of our larger OEM customers, but x-ray tubes contributed to a decline in orders of 12%. Revenue for North America grew strongly by 32%, reflecting the recognition of revenue for large quantum orders along with good demand for our Lectron microscopy range and compound semiconductor processing systems. Asia remains our largest region by revenue, with China constituting 50% of regional revenue and 22% of total revenue.

Speaker 1

Asia fell by 2% as an anticipated reduction in China was broadly offset by strong growth in the rest of Asia. Orders for the region grew by 2% at constant currency, supported by good demand from Japan and the rest of Asia. The proportion of total orders from China fell to 22% compared to 26% last year. Looking at the order book. The total order book of €295,000,000 increased by 0.7% at constant currency compared to last year end.

Speaker 1

We've seen good order book growth in Imaging and Analysis with our microscopy, Raman and imaging products all recording a higher order book. The small reduction of 3.5% in Advanced Technologies reflects timing of orders and deliveries of our larger capital goods that tend to be lumpier in nature as well as the deferral of OEM orders for our X-ray tubes. Turning to the cash flow. In the first half, working capital increased by €29,600,000 During the year, we shipped the first of several cryogenic systems and recognized revenue on the achievements of factory acceptance testing on 2 other systems. The timing of these orders is such that customer deposits were received in the previous year and payments on shipment and customer acceptance will be received over the next 18 months.

Speaker 1

This accounted for circa 30% of the working capital increase. The remainder was attributable to an increase in work in progress to support anticipated shipments in the 3rd quarter and higher than anticipated levels of inventory due to slower Life Science demand. In addition, a high level of shipments made in the final month of the period increased receivables. We would expect to see these increases to unwind in the second half of the year. Of total capital expenditure of $8,800,000 $4,500,000 related to the later stage construction costs of the new compound semiconductor processing facility in Bristol.

Speaker 1

Cash conversion is normally weaker in the first half of the year. However, conversion of 17% on a normalized basis is lower than we would expect. Excluding the mismatch of timing of profit and cash receipts on the long term quantum contract, cash conversion was over 40%, in line with last year. We will continue to focus on reducing working capital in the second half with several actions in progress across the business to deliver our target cash conversion. Acquisition payments reflect the initial consideration for Femto Tools acquired last June.

Speaker 1

We made deficit recovery payments of £4,100,000 to the UK defined benefit pension scheme. We're recording an accounting asset of £19,000,000 and are on track to attain funding self sufficiency by the end of the fiscal year. We then expect to continue contributions as we move towards a potential buyout of the scheme. Net cash was €39,000,000 at the end of September, down from €84,000,000 at the end of March, primarily due to the increase in working capital and consideration for the acquisition of HEMTOTLs. The group's financial results are subject to currency fluctuations, although we maintain a hedging program to mitigate short term currency movements.

Speaker 1

In the year, we recorded an adverse currency impact of £5,800,000 to revenue and £3,900,000 to profit. Looking ahead to this financial year, our assessment of the currency impact is, based on hedges currently in place and forecast FX rates, a decrease in revenue and operating profit of approximately £13,000,000 8,300,000 respectively. Forecast rates used are £1.30 for sterling dollar, £1.20 for €1.99 for €1.99 Looking further ahead to the financial year 'twenty five, 'twenty six and using the same currency rate assumptions, we'd expect an incremental headwind to revenue and profit of about €2,000,000 2,800,000 respectively. So to summarize key financial highlights from the half year. We've delivered constant currency revenue growth of 10% with order intake up 3%.

Speaker 1

Underlying book to bill was positive at 1.01x. The fall in operating margin 16.3% reflects the mix effect of stronger revenue growth from Advanced Technologies as expected. We maintain the strong constant revenue sorry, strong constant currency margin of over 24% for Imaging and Analysis. A strong order book and expected improvement in Life Science Markets and our normal second half weighting are expected to deliver an improvement in constant currency margin in the second half. Due to the strengthening of sterling, we expect a further currency headwind in the second half.

Speaker 1

We also expect a headwind for the next financial year. And while we retain a healthy cash balance, our cash conversion was below our expectations, partly due to timing of capital contracts. Actions in place, normal seasonality and our operational improvement program are expected to deliver full year cash conversion closer to our target. And with that, I'll hand back to Richard.

Operator

Great. Thanks, Gavin. So our strategic review earlier this year highlighted that 90% of our revenues is generated from just 3 primary markets: Materials Analysis, Semiconductors and Healthcare and Life Science, all of which have strong structural growth drivers linked to sustainability. We've seen a strong performance in Materials Analysis with 10% growth underpinned by applications in Structural Materials and in solar and nuclear energy, where we're supporting safety and reliability. Semiconductor revenue is up 27% year on year as customers are using our imaging and analysis tools for quality assurance and failure analysis in silicon semiconductor applications.

Operator

And in compound semiconductor, around 60% of our semi business, our advanced technologies facility continues to accelerate development and production of next generation devices for datacoms, power devices and augmented reality. Health Care and Life Science has been a difficult market for everyone, and we are not immune. Our revenue was down 17% versus a strong comparator, primarily driven by reduced spend from OEMs and also reduced revenue from pharma applications, in line with wider market dynamics. This impacted profitability in our Belfast facility and prompted us to implement a cost reduction program to rightsize that business while protecting our ability to support future growth. Healthcare and Life Science orders have now started to stabilize.

Operator

Overall, our view of the growth potential of all three of these primary markets remains unchanged given the long term structural drivers. And I continue to be encouraged by the level of growth that we have managed to be able to achieve given the significant movements in the period and the challenging macro backdrop. Let me remind you about our new much simpler structure. Since June, we've reconfigured the group into 2 divisions, replacing the previous 9 business units and 3 divisions. The first, Imaging and Analysis, covers our scientific cameras, microscopes, analytical instruments and software, well established lines with market leading technology.

Operator

It represents just under 70% of overall revenue and the vast majority of profit at the last full year. With strong margins of 22% to 24% over recent periods, it benchmarks really well with peers, and we maintained that margin over the first half of this year. Here, we are looking to take the business from good to great, driving synergies, integrating more fully, standardizing processes and extracting more efficiency. Plenty of opportunity from a strong base. Advanced Technologies includes our compound semiconductor product lines and our quantum focused systems, making up the remaining 30% of group revenue.

Operator

Recently, the division has been underperforming, but there is great opportunity in both of these markets. To take advantage of these opportunities, we are focusing on capitalizing on our new compound semi facility, fixing operational performance in our Quantum business and improving efficiency division wide. As I said in June, our initial goal is to get the division up to 10% to 12% operating margin in the medium term. So let's now look at our regional performance. There are 2 main dynamics here.

Operator

The first is the strong growth that we've delivered in North America. I said last November I felt we were not delivering on our full potential here. So we've established a new integrated leadership team, boosted bench strength in the sales resources and refocused the team around a segment based approach as well as investing in marketing. I'm pleased with the early results: revenue growth of 32% with 20% order growth. We've also started to see a better pipeline conversion with a 31% growth in win rate versus last year.

Operator

The second dynamic is not new news. That's our pivot away from some of the more sensitive markets in China towards different applications in the country and our efforts to increase revenues outside of China. You can see that we're having good success in North America, but we've also seen strong growth in Asia, offsetting the reduction in China where we exited around £30,000,000 worth of business. The underlying China performance has been robust with continued good opportunity in the country. This is playing out largely as we anticipated, albeit the progress on the pivot has been quicker, with the result that we are now seeing a more balanced global revenue profile, China representing 22% of group revenues versus 31% this time last year.

Operator

I've been very clear that the ongoing success of Oxford Instruments is underpinned by our market leading technology. Innovation has always been and remains a core growth engine for the business. We've invested 9.2% in R and D in the first half, and we're pleased to see the increased adoption of our Unity detector into academic and commercial applications. We've now seen the 1st academic paper to cite Unity majoring on its ability to capture images 18x faster than the previously in the applications shown on the slide. And we've also launched a new semiconductor specific addition of our Raman microscope, which has attracted sales from Tier 1 customers in the U.

Operator

S. And in Japan. In Life Sciences, we launched 2 new additions of our DragonFly confocal microscope microscopy system with a new high power laser engine and higher resolution model to enable multiple types of imaging on the same system. Over half over the half, we've seen strong growth in Dragonfly sales as more users continue to recognize its extensive capabilities. And over in Advanced Technologies, we are seeing growing adoption of our new atomic layer deposition system for compound semiconductor, which supports the next generation power, 2 d and quantum devices.

Operator

The common thread across these innovations is their ease of use and ability to add value to our customers' processes and help them develop the next generation of solutions supporting their growth. I'm now going to tell you about what we've done to simplify the businesses across the group. One of the core reasons for creating the Imaging and Analysis division was the similar business model and the go to market strategy of the product lines within it. We saw significant opportunity focus on We've also created a single shared development road map to focus our R and D investment on the biggest opportunities for growth. This has allowed us to remove some management layers and cost, and we will start to see the benefits of this in H2.

Operator

And we've also rightsized our Belfast facility to reflect the lower Life Science demand. We've instigated a new streamlined approach to marketing, replacing previous business unit marketing teams where we saw duplication and inefficiency with a cross division marketing function which will focus on our 3 core markets: Materials Analysis, Semiconductor and Life Sciences and Healthcare. And given the level of change here, it's been great to see the team executing so well and delivering such a strong performance. The other key action in this area has been our operational transformation program to improve both customer satisfaction and margin. We set out earlier this year on a major program to implement world class manufacturing operations in our U.

Operator

K. Facilities. The project launched in June in Belfast, focusing on our cameras work stream. And as a reminder, this represents about 60% of the activity in this facility. Over the 5 months since launch, the transformation team have carried out a comprehensive diagnostic, which has highlighted both more challenge but also more potential.

Operator

Specific improvement actions were launched at the end of August, and the team are now well into the delivery phase. This slide highlights some of the achievements so far. The first key component, which will benefit all sites in due course, is the introduction of effective performance management, driving daily and weekly action with a focus on clear priorities, which is already generating tangible improvement, a large increase in weekly output and a 31% increase in labor productivity with more to come as improvements take hold. As I highlighted this time last year, the layout of the factory was suboptimal with wasted space and inefficient process flow. The team are now implementing into implementation of the changes, including some equipment enhancements.

Operator

We've also accelerated the development of our new multi camera test station with initial prototypes due a year earlier than planned at the end of this financial year. We're placing significant emphasis on tackling in process failures and have reduced these by 27% already. And we're also trialing new cleanroom equipment to make further impact. More rigorous inventory control is also now taking hold. And as a result, we are on track to reduce inventory by 10% this year.

Operator

Overall, we now believe we have the potential to drive £2,500,000 with the benefit from the cameras work stream and a 20% reduction in inventory over the medium term. All in all, you can see we're having a really positive impact for our customers and our employees and will ultimately deliver profit and cash flow. So with this first phase of the program on track, we are now planning the launch of the 2nd wave. This will begin in our Oxford facility in January. And in Belfast, we will move on to our Integrated Systems assembly area, the remainder of that facility.

Operator

This will continue to enhance our skills in operations and supply chain as we go. So let's now turn to Advanced Technologies, where we are also making good progress. Firstly, just a brief reminder of the makeup of the division and our strategic priorities. The 2 primary businesses in Advanced Technologies, which represents just over 30% of group revenue, sell much lower volumes of larger scale complex systems to very specialized markets. Each business has unique growth drivers and principally separate customer bases.

Operator

Both need a dedicated, focused plan to achieve their full growth and margin potential. Summarizing our priorities here. In Compound Semi, we are focused on maximizing the benefit of the brand new facility. And in our Quantum business, our priority is to return to a stable, profitable footing. And in both, we're focused on leveraging the rich opportunities that exist in these markets.

Operator

Now many of you will have joined us at our new compound semi facility back in July, and I'm pleased to say we have delivered another period of strong double digit revenue growth. We've secured some significant customer wins since moving into the new facility, including a sale to NVIDIA's supply chain for AI data centers, where we are facilitating the higher powered, lower energy devices, which will be vital for this power hungry application. Looking back a few years, we were dealing with only 1 of the magnificent 7 tech firms. We are now engaging with all 7 of them in some way. As we do, we are helping to enable improved wafer performance and yield and bring down the cost per wafer.

Operator

Looking forward, we have a good order book and cover for the remainder of the year and a record pipeline of qualified opportunities. Customer requests for demos, a key leading indicator, are up 60% year on year, with a clear majority of those requests coming from production customers. We're also continuing to focus on gaining the benefits of optimizing production and service performance in the new site. And the team have improved 24 hour shipment rate by 40 percent as well. So lots of good progress here.

Operator

Now on to Quantum, where our fix, improve and grow strategy is starting to take effect, with a return to profitability expected for the full year. We've made the first deliveries of our largest cryogenic systems to a key global tech customer, a significant technology milestone for them, enabling them to scale to deliver their quantum road map. This is an important strategic partnership for us. It has supported the division's revenue growth and will contribute to the improved full year with further deliveries scheduled for H2. Elsewhere, we continue to support the rollout of commercial quantum data centers with another key partner, Oxford Quantum Circuits.

Operator

And another focus has been to rebuild the order book following the exit from China. I'm pleased that we've generated 9% order growth year on year, reflecting strong growth in North America, Europe and Japan. And in addition to drive performance, we've introduced a cross functional set of Tiger teams to improve product quality, speed up procurement time lines and with one key challenge being to optimize the new ERP system. It's becoming increasingly clear that the introduction of this system contributed to the business' poor performance last year. Equally important is tackling the cost base and operational performance.

Operator

We've removed £1,200,000 worth of costs this year and remain focused on driving further efficiencies. This enabled us to strengthen output through the first half and underpins our confidence in delivering a return to profitability for the full year. So to summarize. I'm pleased with what we achieved in the first half, both in terms of in year delivery and our progress on longer term priorities. And I'm particularly pleased with the context of some of the factors at play.

Operator

We've delivered growth in both divisions, made great progress in growth in the U. S. And in the rebalancing of our regional markets as we pivot to new markets in Asia. I'm also delighted that we've delivered such a strong performance in Imaging and Analysis and maintained our strong margins despite the well documented softer demand in Healthcare and Life Science, which is now stabilizing. The growth in semiconductors and new material science is being supported by recent new product launches.

Operator

And across both divisions, our leading technology is helping us win new customers, cement our partnerships with existing customers and grow our business. We have good visibility to the usual stronger H2 for Oxford Instruments, supported by additional large orders in Advanced Technologies and the benefits of the cost reductions delivered in the first half. That will also support a better cash performance in the second half, too. Our strong order book, the improvement actions we've taken, coupled with the stabilization in Healthcare and Life Science and a good start to the second half, support a full year outlook in line with expectations on a constant currency basis. We've made real inroads into our strategic priorities to improve, rebalance and simplify the business.

Operator

All of this reinforces our confidence that we can improve returns for the business in the medium term as we laid out in June. So with that, I'd like to thank you for joining us today and hand over to the floor for questions. I think we'll take questions in the room first, and there's a microphone going to come around, and then we'll those of you joining online can put your questions in the webcast platform. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Stefan Klepp from HSBC. I have 3 to start with. You talked very often about health care orders stabilizing. I mean, that could mean anything. Can you be a little bit more specific about that?

Speaker 2

And related to that, is there still a high base from the introduction of the DragonFly system in the BG43? Because you did that, it was very successful, have you an artificially high base in health care as well because of those interruptions? Then on net working capital, you said that 30% of the increase in net working capital comes from the quantum side of things, and that's going to fall away. Is it as simple as assuming that you have a net working capital outflow of SEK 20,000,000 in the second half, and that's the normalization that we see with the free cash flow? And the last one is an odd one as well.

Speaker 2

National Insurance hike. You're very U. K. Centric. What does it mean for margins next year?

Operator

Thanks, Stefan. Am I on? Yes. Right. So Health Care, let's do the Health Care thing first.

Operator

So the high base, you rightly point out there's a strong comparator, which I talked about. So the strong comparator came from the growth that came through on BC43 primarily. So in terms of that, we're moving on and working our way through that comparator. In terms of orders stabilizing, so orders came down in H2 last year as we reported principally from the OEMs. That continued in the start of quarter 1 and then started to improve basically through quarter 2.

Operator

So overall, net net order intake is stable. It's like it's in line with prior year against that tough comparator. So it's getting slightly better is where it is at the moment. Ratio. Sorry?

Speaker 2

What would be the book to bill ratio?

Operator

About 1, isn't it? Yes. Yes. So we're encouraged by that. And therefore, assuming if that continues, then there should be a little bit of benefit in H2 for us, okay?

Operator

Not major, but a bit. And as I pointed out, we've actually, regardless of that OEM dynamic and the high comparator in BC43, Dragonfly has been going really well. So the pipeline is really good there, and the order intake has been good. So given that, again, points to good confidence in those kind of systems in that market and the benefit for growth that we can get. Do you want to do working capital?

Speaker 1

Yes, working capital. So on the quantum contract, we would expect there to be a fairly neutral working capital impact in the second half. I expect because as we continue to while we're shipping, we're continuing to start building the next wave that's been ordered. I expect the cash inflow for that contract to start coming in, in half 1 of next year. However, for the remainder of the business, for the group, we do expect a good working capital inflow for the second half, and we would anticipate cash balance at the year end to be broadly in line, if not a touch above, where we ended the where we started at the beginning of the year.

Speaker 1

In terms of National Insurance, the impact is about 1,600,000, 1,620,000 for the group for the year, so not overly significant in terms of the size of the group. And whilst we always seek to defer pass our costs over in terms of pricing, clearly, we're cognizant that we've got market pricing across the globe, and therefore, we will try and pass as much on as we can where possible.

Operator

Thanks, Stefan.

Speaker 3

Hi. Thanks, guys. Dan Thornton, Davy. Just a quick one. On the working capital, you said there was quite a high number amount of shipments at the end of the period, so I think it was September.

Speaker 3

Just have you collected the cash for those?

Speaker 1

Yes. All that cash will be coming in. It mainly related to we had a good level of semiconductor processes systems, which went out in the final month. Yes, we don't have any problems with cash collection in terms of the customer base that we have.

Speaker 3

And just on the working capital bit, following on from the question from a gentleman from HSBC. Is it normal though to have such an extended period of, should we say, working capital out there in Quantum?

Speaker 1

It's worth saying, on for the Quantum contract, we received a large level of deposits to fund our working capital they were received in the previous financial year, which is why we have this mismatch.

Speaker 4

Okay, thanks.

Speaker 5

David Farrell from Jefferies. A couple of questions for me. If we look at Advanced Technologies order intake up sorry, down 6%, but Quantum was up 9%. Could we take from that that Compound Semi order intake was down year on year?

Operator

No, I think you're referring to book to bill, aren't you, in terms of

Speaker 1

it? The orders were impacted by X-ray Technology. So whilst it's a small part of the group, actually, it has big swings in its framework orders, which tend to land every 18 months. So occasionally, you do get these swings. We've had a deferral in some orders from OEM customers.

Speaker 1

So whilst not material for the group, it does move the orders around a bit.

Speaker 5

Okay. Second question around North America. Obviously, really strong progress. We got a new President-elect coming in who might stick in tariffs, and you don't have much, I don't think, if any, manufacturing capability in North America. Is there a risk that people are actually ordering product ahead of that new president?

Operator

So firstly, I don't think there's any evidence of that, of ordering ahead of a new president. If anything, like some others have commented, there's been sort of, in some areas, a bit of a hiatus of order out days, actually beforehand, just to do a sort of of those actually beforehand just to do with sort of government funding cash flows. So in terms of what happens with Trunk, let's see. But overall, it wouldn't change the strategy that we're working on. In fact, I think we've got the strategy about as aligned as well as possible to a Trump presidency.

Operator

Any impacts on possible tariffs, let's see, we control what we can control at the moment. But last time around, we managed to work our way through that, right?

Speaker 5

And then last question for me. Just on the FirstLight acquisition, can you just remind me exactly what that was? Because reading in the notes, it looked like it contributed a loss for the period, and you've kind of walked away from the contingent consideration because you don't think it's payable.

Speaker 1

It's a product range on infrared technology, something which we didn't have. So it's we're still very happy with the acquisition. Its loss making in the first half of the year was primarily a result of some large projects that have been delayed. We still expect them to deliver and come in the second half and the first half of next year. So we're still confident about the future of that business.

Speaker 1

It's just started a little bit slower for this year than we would have liked and expected. Thanks.

Operator

And it was also principally about accelerating the technology road map that was that technology was on the road map for the team anyway, wasn't it?

Speaker 5

Okay. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Speaker 6

It's Richard Page from Deutsche and Numis. Just 2 for me, please. The thing that really strikes is the moving parts. There's a lot of moving numbers here in the overall statement. Could you just ask about the influence of new product launches within that, particularly, I guess, in Nano Analysis and the sustainability of that?

Speaker 6

And then secondly, obviously, a big move, one of those other big moves is the China influence. You talked about a book to bill of 1 point 0 6 there. So do we think the rebalancing within the China business is pretty much done now?

Operator

Yes. So in terms of the moving parts, as I highlighted, very pleased with the growth traction. Actually, another period of strong growth in compound semi, which is exactly what we need for that business. But in terms of the new product launches supporting growth, I think we talked about Uniti having been launched back in June. It was had its first early orders, but it's gained some really good traction in the first half.

Operator

And it was nice to see the specific ramen ramen piece of equipment also get some traction in semi. So they're both seeing good growth. So it's good to see that Oxford's new technology going out to the market is generating demand in what, I would term, general difficult backdrop on some of those market areas. So clearly, the technology is wanted. So is that sustainable?

Operator

I think it's still in the it absolutely is in the early phase of that. So I certainly would expect to see some more traction going forward, and we're encouraged by it. I mean, in general, we're very encouraged by the level of demand we've seen across those market areas. And if you take the health care stabilizing, we're starting to see some signs of improvement there now from that base. Again, that just makes us feel confident looking forward.

Operator

China, yes, I think look, I think it's as I said in the presentation, the pivot has actually worked exceptionally well quite quickly, quicker than I would have anticipated. The majority of the exit of the more sensitive lines has happened. So there might be still a little bit to play through the revenue stream, but not much, I don't think. And the fact that we've got 1.06 on the base, I think, shows the robust demand picture in the balance of China.

Speaker 4

Andrew Humphrey, Peel Hunt. A couple, if I may. First one, maybe following up on Richard's. In Materials Analysis, you've clearly seen really strong performance in first half, up 12% constant currency. Clearly, there's demand for the products.

Speaker 4

I wanted to ask if there's anything kind of a one off nature in that that you'd see. Is that just broad based? Any particular areas you'd call out? And secondly, you mentioned NVIDIA and you mentioned the kind of big tech mega caps. I wanted to get you to sort of parse out a bit within semiconductor.

Speaker 4

Are those coming more into the imaging and analysis part? Or is it sort of advanced architectures in compound semi that you're supplying into for those sorts of AI data center applications? Just trying to get a feel for the quality of the business.

Operator

The second one first is really referring to the more advanced compound semi developments. So that's what I'm talking about when we're saying that we position ourselves to be working with or developing something in those various supply chains now. And it was great to see we talked when we were down those of I think everybody was in 7 Beach actually, but listening to Matt talk about the business there and the importance of reference customers to demonstrate to others that are in the space that we've actually secured those first ones and show our quality, that's exactly what that example is supposed to demonstrate. So I think I said to you when I launched the strategy, that's the sort of thing to be watching out for, that we are continuing to see not only the growth but show that we can win those new reference customers in the particular compounds and the areas of growth. So that is an example of that.

Operator

If you go back to the material analysis question, Andrew, in terms of the strong growth there, I think that is broad based. There's not any one off stuff in there. The things to sort of 0 in on are actually more the sort of regional dynamics of movement that we've articulated, but it's broad based across many customers. I think we're done in the room. Is there any online questions in addition?

Speaker 2

It's okay. It's Quantum again. I'm sorry for asking that. Can you remind us of the project nature? Because that is a very different kettle of fish that you have in your group.

Speaker 2

What are the lead times? What is the net working capital demands? And what's the margin potential there? Because it's an engineering business, more or less, And it obviously depends how good you plan the project in advance, how much FTE hours you assign to, is the bill of material right and then is the execution getting everything in the right time line executed because it has a different risk profile, too. So can we talk about the existing big project that you deliver and the other 2 that you won?

Speaker 2

And what kind of project sizes are we talking about?

Operator

Okay. So the dynamics that you've just described, Stefan, are spot on. That's what we have to manage. I think when we talked about the advanced technology strategy and its place within it, we're looking to remove the losses that we experienced last year and move that business back towards what we hope would be a double digit margin. I think that's the basic goal for the business there.

Operator

We do a range of systems and capabilities. They the sort of the general I mean, to call them runners is probably not fair, but the general running product would go through in the sort of, I don't know, dollars 500,000 to $1,000,000 range, that sort of thing. And it's 80%, 90% standard. There's not huge volumes of them, but that's the way that works. And then we've got a couple of projects on the go right now that are larger systems, the one that we've described before.

Operator

So those are more meaningful programs in the sort of, I guess, €5,000,000 to €10,000,000 range in terms of project size. But we've as we said, we've delivered the 1st main system there. It was an important technology milestone for us to get through the technology gate and enable the 1st delivery. So the team really pleased with the progress they've made, and that's enabled the first half performance and the visibility and more deliveries for H2.

Speaker 2

Just to be specific here, is it the same client that we're talking about? And did you the same client for the Quantum business, is it the same client that you're delivering those larger projects to? And secondly, did you say that you're expecting the margins in Quantum as well to be in the double digits?

Operator

So in terms of the one we're talking about for the year, yes, that's the same customer, follow on deliveries. In terms of the margin, that's the goal for the business is to get them back up to 10%.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Okay.

Operator

Thank you. Richard, we just have one question from the webcast. Given the FX headwinds, are you still happy with your medium term margin targets? Good question. So yes, obviously, we've got a we've had around a sort of 10% headwind this year.

Operator

I think when we laid out the strategy in June, we were anticipating some. And clearly, it's a little bit more than that. But equally, in terms of the progress and the visibility of the actions we're taking on the strategy and the level of opportunity, I think we've highlighted we're confident that, that delivers the step bridge, if you like, to the 20% goal. So yes, we're happy with those targets, and as I said in the presentation. Great.

Operator

Thank you. It appears there's nothing further online. So I'll hand it back to you for closing remarks. Right. Very good.

Operator

Well, look, thanks for everybody in the room this morning and your attention and online. Really appreciate it. And hopefully, we've conveyed that we think we've had a really good performance in the first half. It underpins our confidence in the strategy we business. So thanks very much.

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Earnings Conference Call
Hamilton Beach Brands H1 2025
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