Major Cheltenham employer delivers £320 million of operating profit

One of Gloucestershire’s biggest employers is back on track after the worst of the pandemic, delivering record operating profits, a turnover of £1,344 million and a prediction of ‘strong growth in 2022’.

By Andrew Merrell | Published Friday 11 March 2022

Nicholas Anderson, group chief executive officer at Spirax Sarco, called his colleagues performance through 2021 outstanding. — Nicholas Anderson, group chief executive officer at Spirax Sarco, called his colleagues’ performance through 2021 ‘outstanding’.

World-wide engineering giant Spirax Sarco said its just-published annual results show the Cheltenham business is not just over the worst of the pandemic – but already exceeding pre-Covid levels of income.

Operating profit increased by 29 per cent from £249 million to £320.9 million and turnover was up by 13 per cent from £1,193.4 million to £1,344.5 million for 2021.

And the firm, which employs an estimated 1,000 staff in Gloucestershire and 7,900 staff globally staff, is predicting ‘strong growth in 2022’.

Nicholas Anderson, group chief executive officer at the steam engineering giant, called the results ‘excellent’ and ‘testament to the strength of our organisation, business model and strategy’.

‘For 2022 we currently anticipate strong sales growth, driven by record order books and continued global Industrial Production growth,’ said Anderson.

‘While adjusted operating profit growth will be reduced by the full-year impact of revenue investments in 2021, we currently anticipate the adjusted operating profit margin in 2022 will still be comfortably above pre-pandemic levels.
‘We are deeply proud of all our colleagues for achieving such outstanding performance.’

Other highlights included ‘strong sales’ in its Watson Marlow pump engineering business, which grew by 32 per cent, and a record closing order book for its three core businesses combined.