Ab Dynamics PLC (LON:ABDP) Chief Operating Officer Mat Hubbard caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their half-year report, main focus areas and the outlook for the next financial year
Q1: First off, congratulations on another strong set of results, we’ve seen revenues increase by 39% to £15.3 million but what has driven this growth?
A1: That’s a very good question. There’s been a huge demand for new technologies in the automotive sector around semi autonomy and full autonomy of vehicle. Full autonomy vehicles is probably quite a long time away but semi-autonomous systems that help cars to stop and| avoid accidents when a pedestrian walks out into the road, or when a vehicle is following another, these systems are becoming more commonplace on vehicles and these systems are becoming ever-more complicated.
So, the manufacturers are buying the equipment we make to develop these systems in-house, not only that, the legislative bodies that test vehicle safety such as Euro NCAP and its equivalents in America and China and Japan, they are starting to use our equipment to set legislative tests to ensure that these semi-autonomous systems work on vehicles. Because they are using our equipment then the manufacturers also buy it to ensure that they’re testing vehicles to the same standard.
Q2: As we know, AB Dynamics has moved into a new factory and offices in the UK, and also established a new operating entity in Germany, how are these adding to AB Dynamics’ operations?
A2: Obviously, the new factory has given us additional use space, it also is a beautiful place to work in, we have a fabulous working environment for our employees and it’s helping us to attract the staff we need to ensure our business can grow.
With regards to the entity in Germany, it now has a bank account, but it doesn’t have a physical office yet but we’re working towards that. We think it’s really important to get close to our customers, in all the regions, and our customers expect to have local support and supply spare parts and therefore we think it’s really part of the platform for growth, we need to be doing these things, so we can grow to the next level.
Q3: So, what are the main focus areas for the company in the next months for continued growth?
A3: Obviously, bringing in a new CEO on board is important for us to go forwards and that process is currently in operation and we hope to be able to announce something later in the year.
We’re obviously working on the overseas operations so continuing the work to establish the entity in Germany but also subsequently, looking at entities in North America and China in the next few years.
Also, from a product perspective, there’s just lots of development going on to improve the software that controls our products to ensure that it’s easy to use and allows our customers to do the testing that they want to do.
Obviously, there is a new area of business for the company in the area of driving simulators and we’re continuing to work towards having a deliverable product in the next few months.
Q4: How would you say trading is going and what is the outlook like for the next financial year for Ab Dynamics?
A4: I think the industrial market is generally very strong, we’ve seen some bad news recently from Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan where they’re losing staff in the UK but that’s probably because those companies are offering products around diesel-power trains.
Our business is very international and at the moment, we have a very strong order book through into the next financial year and we expect positive trading at the moment.
