Renishaw Plc, specialist in automated metrology (the science of measurement), based in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, has reported pre-tax profits down 23% at just over UKP4m on revenues down 4% at just over UKP21m for the six months to December 31. The company, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year, makes probe equipment as used in component manufacturing, for example in metal-cutting machines. Renishaw was set up by two people from Rolls-Royce Ltd – David McMurtry and John Deer – who had been working on the Concorde project, which required some sort of method of component measurement. McMurty and Deer developed a device called a touch trigger probe, which they patented jointly with Rolls-Royce – all patents are now owned outright by Renishaw however. They actually spun off this development activity in 1975, when Deer began to recognise a wider potential use for the device. Renishaw started life in a garage in Chepstow, South Wales, from which Deer and McMurtry started to sell the probe to manufacturers of co-ordinate three-dimensional measurement machines – according to marketing executive Chris Pockett, 75% to 80% of this worldwide market now uses Renishaw probes. Some 90% of Renishaw’s revenues, in actual fact, come from overseas. Renishaw floated on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1983, when sales were around UKP6m. Only a year later, the company obtained a full listing on the London Stock Exchange and raised UKP5.9m by way of a rights issue to finance further product development; Renishaw currently spends 10% of its revenues on research and development. Annual sales are now around the UKP50m mark, and the company has a total 800 staff, 600 of which are in the UK. Renishaw boasts six Queen’s Awards – two for technological achievement and four for export. The manufacture of probes and related accessories is now brought under the umbrella of Renishaw Metrology Ltd and Renishaw (Ireland) Ltd. In addition to its facilities at Wotton-under-Edge, Renishaw has additional manufacturing operations in Cwmbran, South Wales. Renishaw Transducer Systems Ltd was set up in 1985 to develop products in the related technologies of opto-electronics and laser measurement systems. Renishaw sells to OEM customers, its products used in aerospace, automotive, civil engineering and construction, computing, consumer products, marine, oil, scientific and medical applications. The last six months has seen an out-of-court settlement, relating to a patent infringment in the US by a company called Zeiss. Renishaw claims to have a strong balance sheet and feels braced to cope with a 30% reduction in demand for the machines for which it provides the parts.
