Income at Telford employer BAE up by 18pc
Shropshire employer BAE Systems today reported an 18 per cent rise in income from its UK operation.
The defence giant employs about 200 people at its Telford base at Donnington, which is a UK centre of excellence for armoured vehicles.
And in its UK platforms and services division, which employs 27,000 people across the UK and includes combat vehicles, sales jumped by almost 18 per cent to £3.2 billion.
It now expects that division to see a 25 per cent rise in sales over the course of the year, as it pins its hopes to the conclusion of a contract to supply 72 Typhoon aircraft to the Saudi government.
The figures come despite BAE seeing its overall profit for the half year fall slightly, as the defence giant passed the June 30 finishing post for the half year with operating profit of £750 million, down from £768 million last year, on increased overall sales of £8.4 bn.
It now hopes to achieve double-digit growth for the full year on the back of the Saudi contract, after blaming US defence cuts for the slight drawing in of profit in the first half of the year.
The US Department of Defence began reducing its spending by $37 billion in March and its budget is set to shrink by $50 billion annually over the next nine years unless the government intervenes.
But BAE said the outlook for its UK defence business remains "stable".
Much of its UK business is concentrated on a small number of big programmes, the firm said, and discussions with the Ministry of Defence are ongoing to balance naval surface shipbuilding with future demand for warships.
