Chief Exec Review

2011 CEO Update

Our progress through 2011 has been very much as expected and is in line with the yearly objectives set within our Business Plan. Our aim is to navigate a sensible course through these uncertain times, and continue to balance the strengthening of our Group with profit generation, following the principles of our Core Strategy:

• Remove weaknesses - we have reduced our long term legacy debt by generating cash and paying down our long term Bank borrowings. We continue to improve our discipline in managing under-performance, ensuring any issues are quickly and candidly identified, assessed and addressed.


• Core Investment - we have invested in the production capability across the majority of our manufacturing sites, enabling us to deliver better value to our customers through earlier lead times and improved product performance.


• New business opportunities - we have undertaken market research & product development programmes to identify and assess specific business opportunities for the Group. We have also engaged in an 'innovation consortium' with key global technology companies to refine these opportunities in preparation for market entry.