Welcome to our 2024
Annual Report

FW Thorpe PLC encompasses individual companies that concentrate on particular market sectors and geographical locations. The companies provide the Group with diversity as well as risk mitigation, as they do not compete with one another and are complementary. The companies within the Group can be affected differently by trends and economic impacts within their respective markets. The continuing development and market adoption of LED lighting and controls technology allows Group companies to share the benefits of their product and technical expertise, differentiating themselves from competitors.

Following a few years of growth, revenues remained steady this year. Orders surpassed those of last year, with the order book staying at the more typical levels expected.

There was another strong performance from the operational side of the business, delivering close to £50m of revenue in the second half of the year as well as driving stock levels lower. Supply chain challenges lessened; however, there has been some disruption to shipping routes in the Middle East, with knock-on increased costs.

¹ Constant currency shows percentage change in sales in the company’s local currency.

Lightronics was the stand out performer for 2023/24 by a distance. Following below par but still respectable results last year, Lightronics returned to form with record operating results this year.

¹ Constant currency shows percentage change in sales in the company’s local currency.

As Zemper completed another full year with the Group, revenue and operating profits were broadly in line with last year’s. Zemper supplies its product into the three main territories of Spain, France and Belgium, previously untapped by the Group, with additional business from a number of other countries.

¹ Constant currency shows percentage change in sales in the company’s local currency.

This year, Famostar delivered another robust performance, which improved on last year’s. Famostar continues to grow SmartScan-enabled revenues and further develop sales of Thorlux products into the Netherlands market, where further progress has been made this year.

Having bounced back last year, unfortunately TRT dropped back this year. Some good orders from tunnels were not enough to offset the fall in street lighting revenues.

Following a few years of growth, Solite fell back this year. Orders remained buoyant, with larger scale projects secured, but some of these deliveries have been deferred into the next financial year. Operating results were still reasonable and not far off the levels of last year.

Solid results this year followed a return to typical business levels in 2022/23. Although investment in selling activities continues to weigh on underlying operating results, this is still a reasonable operating return but with room for improvement.

There will be elements of déjà vu in this year’s report for Portland. Revenues improved compared with those of a disappointing prior year, driven by the traffic division (road safety sign lighting) of the business.