Irish engineer Mincon grew revenue 6% in first nine months

Irish engineer Mincon grew revenue 6 per cent in the first nine months of 2021 when compared with the same period last year, the group said in a trading update on Monday.

The engineering group specialising in the design, manufacture, sale and servicing of rock drilling tools and associated consumable products said it “sustained the sales growth experienced in the first half of the year during the past quarter”.

Order levels “increased strongly” during the third quarter, and production levels were increased to “enable us to fulfil orders for the final quarter of the year”.

Mincon said it continues to experience delays across the group in the delivery of raw materials to factories and the delivery of manufactured products from factories to customer centres as a result of increased sea freight transit times.

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“As such, we have decided to maintain our raw material inventories at higher levels in our factories, and we have increased inventories in our customer centres to ensure customer supply,” it said.

“In line with other industries, we have continued to experience higher freight and raw material costs. Arising from these issues, we have experienced some pressure on margins and we are passing on increased costs when we can in an equitable and sustainable manner.”

During the past quarter Mincon invested in its sales footprint to reach new customers and to gain future market share.

“We have hired new salespeople, opened new warehouse points in key locations and acquired Attakroc, a distributor in Quebec City in July of this year,” it said.

“We have also invested in our factories during the past quarter to improve efficiency and add capacity with new and more environmentally friendly production methods.

“We expect that the commissioning of the new equipment from this investment will take place in final quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.”