Commercial vehicle repowering specialist Equipmake has provided a trading update for the year to 31 May. The company says that it has strengthened its leadership and talent base as it further rolls out its commercialisation and growth plans, with the appointments of Nick Moelders as Chief Operating Officer, Tony Ratcliffe as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, and Jinsong Dai as VP Sales and Business Development. The Company raised £4.1 million of new funds in February 2024, and says the Board is grateful for the support from existing shareholders and is pleased to welcome a number of new shareholders.
The company describes the year as ‘transformational’ as it scaled its operations in order to deliver greater volumes of business. The firm says it delivered attractive revenue growth and increased margins from the manufacture and supply of electric vehicle components and full zero-emission drivetrain solutions. The largest increase in revenue was from bus repowering, the company reports, driven by strong demand and a naturally shorter sales cycle.
Equipmake won a contract with Big Bus Tours to repower 10 double-deck sightseeing buses in September 2023, with a further 10 added in January 2024, and won a £2 million contract with Golden Tours in February 2024 to install its zero-emission electric drivetrain solution into vehicles in that operator’s fleet, with an additional contract awarded after the year-end, in June 2024, to supply and install zero-emission electric drivetrain solutions in additional vehicles.
Additionally, Equipmake commissioned a new 50,000 square foot facility, providing capacity for expansion in product manufacture and assembly, in the first quarter of 2024. Revenue for the year to 31 May is reported to be approximately £8.1 million, up from £5.1 million the previous year, a growth of approximately 60%.
The company noted the labour-intensive nature of bus repowering when working at modest volumes and across various platforms and with inconsistent quality in recipient vehicles. Whilst efficiencies continue to improve, it said, the business line incurred material additional staff costs, including temporary labour, in order to ensure deliveries met key customer agreed timelines.
Looking forward, the company says bus repowering continues to provide meaningful revenues and has already successfully demonstrated the quality, reliability and significant benefits of the its solutions in real world operation on a wide variety of platforms. It now plans to rationalise the bus repowering offering towards a limited number of platforms, with a view to improving gross margins, and in due course expects revenues from bus repowering to plateau then reduce. Overall, the company says it anticipates a very busy year and looks forward to updating shareholders of further progress.
Commenting on the trading update, CEO Ian Foley said: “We are very pleased to have delivered a substantial increase in revenue in the year, a 60% increase on the previous year, highlighting both the increased awareness of, and demands for, our pioneering electrification technologies. Whilst we have clearly incurred more cost than expected in scaling volume in bus repowering, which is of course disappointing, we have collated significant learnings from this and are focused on optimising operations, bringing in cost reductions and other efficiencies as we scale further. We have strengthened the senior team to help achieve this.
“It is testament to the quality of our expertise and attractiveness of our offerings that the company has been able to initiate and progress multiple engagements with very large global OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, which is very much our focus, and we look forward to seeing the more material fruits from these relationships in the future. I look forward to another year of growth and to updating the market in due course.”
