Welcome to Senior plc's 2024 interim results presentation. Thanks for making the effort to get here to the London Stock Exchange, and a warm welcome, too, for those of you joining remotely. In terms of our agenda this morning, I will briefly cover the highlights. Bindi will run through and comment on the results, and then I will give an update on market strategy and outlook. Senior has delivered a robust set of results that are in line with our expectations. Our aerospace revenue and profits have grown strongly, notwithstanding the 737 MAX volumes being subdued as a consequence of the ongoing situation at Boeing. Our Flexonics division continued to perform well, maintaining double-digit margins, even while, as expected, revenues and profits were lower as land vehicle markets started to normalize and upstream oil and gas customers reduced inventory levels.
The order book is robust and growing. Our book-to-bill was a healthy 1.15, and we've had some notable contract wins in both the aerospace and Flexonics divisions. We've also renewed and extended a number of important existing contracts, bringing pricing up to date. The strategic review of our aerospace, Aerostructures business is progressing, and we look forward to sharing a fuller update when we have something concrete to say. Reflecting both this robust performance and our future prospects, the board is pleased to recommend an interim dividend of GBP 0.75 pence, a 25% increase from last year. Overall, the board's expectations of good growth for the group in 2024 are unchanged. Before I talk about market strategy and outlook, I will hand over to Bindi to take us through the financial results.
Thank you, David. Good morning. In summary, the message is we delivered in line with our expectations: a robust trading performance with revenue, profits, and margins all growing year-on-year. On a constant currency basis, revenue grew 7%, margins increased to 5%, adjusted operating profit increased by 13%, and adjusted profit before tax increased 8% to GBP 18.4 million. After taking into account currency and the effect of higher tax rates, adjusted earnings per share increased by 1% to 3.55 pence. We generated free cash flow of GBP 3 million, a significant improvement over last half year. Net debt, excluding capitalized leases, was GBP 156 million. The increase since December reflects payment of the first Spencer Aerospace earn-out following its strong growth performance, as well as dividends and share purchases to hedge share award commitments.
With improved profitability, return on capital employed increased by 100 basis points to 7.3%. Group revenue increased by GBP 19 million to GBP 501.4 million, despite adverse exchange rate translation of GBP 12.3 million. Looking at divisional performance on a constant currency basis, aerospace revenue increased by 14%. Civil aerospace sales had the strongest growth, up 18%. Aside from the 737 MAX, all other aircraft production rates were higher in the first half of 2024 compared to H1 2023, driven particularly by the A320 family and regional jets. Defense revenue grew 5% as our sales to the F-35 program increased and legacy programs remained stable. A number of our aerospace businesses supply product to adjacent industrial markets.
Revenue from these markets increased by 8%, largely due to the rebound in demand from the semiconductor equipment market. In Flexonics, as expected, revenue was down 6%. With demand in land vehicle markets starting to normalize following a strong 2023, Senior's land vehicle revenue decreased 2.9%. This was a resilient performance as new program wins helped partly mitigate the softer market conditions. Our sales to North American truck market increased 5.1%, outperforming the end market, which was up 3.7%. Senior's North American off-highway sales decreased 14% in the period, reflecting softer market conditions. Sales to other truck and off-highway regions, primarily Europe and India, decreased by 2.7%, and sales to passenger vehicle markets decreased by 4.6%. Group revenue from power and energy markets decreased by 10%.
Sales to oil and gas customers decreased by GBP 9.3 million due to the anticipated destocking this year by certain upstream customers. Downstream sales remained healthy. Sales to other power and energy markets increased by GBP 1.9 million, reflecting growth in power generation, nuclear, and renewables.... The increase in the group's adjusted operating profit was driven by aerospace, more than offsetting the expected volume-related reduction in profit in Flexonics. In aerospace, adjusted operating profit increased by almost 40% to GBP 16.2 million, and the adjusted operating margin increased by 90 basis points to 4.8%. The division continues to make good progress operationally as build rates on most aircraft types have been increasing.
Operating leverage has improved and would have been even higher were it not for the impact of the 737 MAX on our businesses most exposed to the program. In Flexonics, with the expected reduction in revenue, adjusted operating profit decreased by 8% to GBP 17.9 million. The division's adjusted operating margin remained in double digits at 10.9%. This slide shows the reconciliation of adjusted profit to the statutory reported profit for the period. It also highlights our interest in tax charges. Net borrowing costs increased by GBP 1.3 million to GBP 6.1 million due to higher interest rates on variable rate debt and higher levels of average indebtedness compared to last half year.
IFRS 16 interest charge on lease liabilities increased to GBP 1.6 million, and net finance income from pension plans remained at GBP 1 million. A tax charge of GBP 3.7 million was recognized on the Group's adjusted profit before tax, an effective rate of 20%, and we currently expect this 20% rate to be maintained for the full year 2024. In terms of reconciling adjusted profit to statutory reported profit, we recognize site relocation costs of GBP 2.6 million. 2.3 of this relates to the transfer of some aerospace manufacturing from California to Mexico, and 0.3 million relates to the initial transfer of our Flexonics Crumlin business facility to a nearby high-tech facility. The GBP 1.1 million pound charge associated with the U.S. class action relates to the settlement of wage and hours class action claims.
The other items excluded from adjusted profit measures relate primarily to the acquisition of Spencer Aerospace, GBP 0.8 million for amortization of intangible assets from the acquisition, and GBP 0.7 million under corporate undertakings for interest unwind of the contingent consideration. At the full year results, I had guided to free cash flow being an outflow in the first half of the year, so it was positive to deliver free cash inflow of GBP 3 million. Working capital cash outflows were GBP 19.8 million, of which increases of GBP 15 million in inventory and GBP 4 million in receivables reflected increased trading in the period. Inventory was higher due to planned investment to meet the strong increase in demand in aerospace and to protect against supply chain disruption.
Inventory for the 737 MAX is also taking longer to be utilized than initially expected because of lower production rates. Working capital was 18.4% of sales, and for the full year, we currently expect working capital to be around 17%-18% of sales to support the growth in aerospace and also the recently won Flexonics programs in land vehicles and downstream oil and gas. Capital expenditure of GBP 16.9 million was 0.9 times pre-IFRS 16 depreciation, and for the full year 2024, CapEx is expected to be slightly above pre-IFRS 16 depreciation in support of investment in growth projects, particularly in Flexonics, where contracts have already been secured. Net payments for interest and tax totaled GBP 11.9 million.
Below free cash flow, the most significant cash outflows were GBP 10.7 million for the first Spencer earn-out, GBP 7 million for dividends, and the employee benefit trust purchased GBP 3 million of shares to satisfy anticipated future share awards. Overall, the group had net cash outflow of GBP 18.5 million in the first half of 2024. The group's net debt to EBITDA was 1.9 times in June, and we had liquidity headroom of GBP 158 million under our committed borrowing facilities. In the first half of this year, we issued new $50 million private placement notes carrying interest at 6.26%, maturing in February 2030, and we extended the maturity of the $50 million U.S. RCF facility out to June 2026.
These actions mean the current weighted average maturity of the group's facilities is 3 years. In summary, Senior delivered a robust trading performance with first half 2024 revenue, profits, and margins all growing year-on-year. Aerospace grew strongly, notwithstanding 737 MAX volumes being subdued, and Flexonics maintained double-digit margins. Group ROCE increased by 100 basis points since June 2023 to 7.3%, and we remain on track to deliver our minimum medium-term ROCE target of 13.5%. The 25% increase in the interim dividend reflects confidence in the group's improved performance and future prospects. Thank you, and I will now hand back to David to cover markets, strategy, and outlook.
Thank you, Bindi. So let's turn our attention to markets. In H1 2024, aerospace represented 67% of the group's revenues, and Flexonics was 33%, with strong growth across our aerospace division. Civil aerospace is now 46% of the group, and there is plenty more growth in that sector to come as OEM build rates increase to meet the very strong demand for new aircraft and engines. And sales to our defense customers also grew. Our other aerospace markets stayed flat in percentage terms, but grew in absolute terms with the start of a recovery in sales to semiconductor equipment customers. Our land vehicle and power and energy businesses continued to perform well, in line with expectations against a mixed market backdrop.
This chart shows a percentage of our aerospace division sales for H1 2024 by platform and helps to set the scene for our aerospace and defense markets. We have excellent positions on all single-aisle and widebody platforms, which will continue to grow strongly as long-haul travel and short-haul demand levels continue to increase. The proportion of group, as opposed to division revenue, is shown on the breakout box on the right. And remember, this includes all sales to all customers that end up on a particular platform. So, for example, sales to Safran on the LEAP-1A engine would show up on the A320 segment. As can be seen, the Airbus single-aisle program continues to represent the largest percentage of sales by platform. I have a separate slide on the 737 MAX situation, which I'll go through in a moment.
Sales of our parts and equipment to widebody platforms, including the Boeing 787, Airbus A350, and A330, have grown and will continue to do so based on our customers' planned build rate increases over the next few years. The F-35 and C-130 aircraft remain our largest defense programs. I show this chart regularly, so most of you will be familiar with the high proportion of sales not attributable to any specific platform at 2% or higher. At 40% of our aerospace division revenue, this is an important part of our business and will include sales on space platforms, aftermarket, and also sales which emanate from our aerospace businesses, but are for adjacent industrial markets. A good example would be sales for semiconductor equipment and medical applications. In H1 2024, the 737 MAX programme represented just 5.6% of group sales.
Boeing's production rates in the first half of this year were subdued as they worked through agreed quality actions with the FAA to put the program on a firmer footing. And you will recall that the FAA have set a maximum production rate of 38 per month until all necessary quality and safety actions have been addressed. We were pleased to hear Boeing saying on their recent earnings call that they expect to be at rate 38 by the end of this year. Rates will not increase beyond this level until approved to do so by the Federal Aviation Administration. We have agreed sensible schedules with Boeing and other 737 MAX customers that take anticipated build rates and inventory levels into account, and we are aligning our costs and the businesses affected to these levels.
Despite build rates for the 737 MAX being lower on average in H1 2024 compared to H1 2023, Senior Aerospace's sales have actually been flat year-over-year as a consequence of winning new orders for fluid conveyance parts on the aircraft. The work remains to be done by Boeing. The situation appears to be gradually stabilizing, and we will closely monitor information coming from Boeing and the FAA on this matter. The chart on the left of this slide shows that air travel has completely recovered from the pandemic dip. Air traffic has continued to increase, with all regions showing improvements in the six months to the end of June 2024. According to IATA, total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs, has increased by 13.4% compared to the same period in 2023.
Air traffic is forecast to continue to grow as incomes increase, especially in developing markets in Asia. Demand for new aircraft is forecast to grow by 3%-4%, driven by growth in air traffic and ongoing fleet replacement. With our diversified product portfolio, and especially the attractive positions we hold across the newest generation of single-aisle and widebody aircraft platforms, we are well positioned to benefit from this market growth. The two charts on the right show our expectation of average monthly production rates for all aircraft types combined, based on what our customer have announced, supplemented by our own estimates... for Airbus, that includes A220, A320, A330, and A350. For Boeing, it includes the 737 MAX, the Boeing 767, the B777, and the Boeing 787. Let's just remind ourselves what the old aircraft OEMs have said.
On single-aisle, Airbus reiterated at their recent results call that for the A320 family, they intend to ramp up to a monthly production rate of 75 per month sometime in 2027. Previously, they were aiming for 2026. On A220, Airbus have said that they plan to increase to rate 14 in 2026. On wide-body for the A350, Airbus confirmed their target rate of 12 per month in 2028. Similarly, they reported on the A330, the rate is increasing to 4 per month in 2024. For Boeing, I've already talked separately about the 737 MAX.
On the 787, they advised that the production rate would increase back to 5 per month by the end of this year, and they've previously said they would then increase steadily to 10 per month in the 2025 and 2026 timeframe. We expect that production of the 767 will continue at a rate of 3 per month, and with flight testing underway, the first delivery of the 777X is still expected in 2025. Our business in Thailand is making good progress, having been significantly affected over the past year by the fire at a key supplier in February 2023. The supplier's factory has been rebuilt, and we were pleased to have made our first shipments to customers in July using parts from the new factory.
Volumes from the new factory will increase steadily over coming months as parts are re-qualified, and thereafter, we're confident that Thailand will see rapid growth as they have a compelling value proposition that our customers are keen to take advantage of. More generally, we have seen our supply chain stabilizing as a result of specific actions we and our suppliers have implemented. However, a few hotspots remain, and we're mindful of comments from customers about continuing pressures in some parts of the aerospace ecosystem. Nonetheless, with record order books supporting significant production rate increases, we can expect continued growth in this sector.
Overall, our focus for defense remains very much on the U.S. market, where defense spending is almost as high as the next 10 countries combined, and series production volumes reach meaningful levels for sustained periods, which in due course, will also generate good aftermarket sales for our fluid conveyance products. Long-established programs, such as the C-130 and P-8, remain important revenue drivers for Senior, but of course, the F-35 is the largest defense program that we're working on. We have several operating businesses supplying to various customers on this program, so we're encouraged to see Lockheed Martin confirming target levels of production of 156 aircraft per year over coming years. And then there are the newer growth programs that will become important for us. For example, our high-pressure ducting products are on the Boeing-Saab T-7A Red Hawk platform, which is the new U.S. Air Force trainer jet.
The U.S. Air Force is now in the intensive flight test phase, after which it will ramp up in production over the coming years. We expect this platform to be successful internationally in addition to the U.S. volumes. Sales of the type of products we make in our aerospace operating businesses into adjacent markets outside of the civil aerospace and defense markets are classified under other aerospace and include sales into the space, semiconductor equipment, and medical markets. At 8% of group sales, this is a meaningful part of our business. In H1, we were pleased to see the start of the recovery of our sales into the semiconductor equipment market, and this will continue into the second half of this year.
Turning now to Flexonics, we'll firstly look at land vehicles, which covers truck, off-highway, and passenger vehicles, and for this market, we sell a range of proprietary products to major OEMs. In particular, our exhaust gas recirculation coolers or EGR coolers, as they are commonly known, which protect the environment by reducing emissions. And we have tremendous opportunities for our thermal management products, such as battery cooling for electric vehicles. Demand in heavy-duty truck markets during the first half of 2024 was resilient, while the off-highway market was down and the light vehicle market experienced mixed conditions. We anticipate demand in the second half of 2024 will continue to moderate before returning to growth sometime during 2025. On the passenger vehicle side, we've been winning new contracts, and this will help generate growth in future years.
Furthermore, we're well-placed in the medium and long term to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by tightening emissions regulations and the transition to electric and hydrogen solutions. Another key Flexonics market is power and energy, where we supply to both upstream and downstream oil and gas customers and are keenly involved in the transition to clean energy. In the first half of 2024, we had great order intake for our Senior Flexonics Pathway business, whose market-leading expansion joints are in demand from industrial process control, petrochem, and nuclear customers. As expected, we saw some destocking from our upstream customers following high levels of demand in 2023, and we expect a similar pattern in the second half of the year.
In the medium term, we are well-positioned to grow our non-fossil fuel business, building on our existing renewables and nuclear energy customer base, including the evolving small modular reactor or SMR sector, where we're involved in active bids and design work for North American customers. Moving on to strategy. So our extensive design expertise, intellectual property, and know-how, and technology supports our strategic focus on fluid conveyance and thermal management. This enables us to develop and supply proprietary products, subsystems, and systems for our customers demanding applications across a range of diverse and attractive end markets. Our strategy of focusing on fluid conveyance and thermal management is positioning Senior to offer pivotal technologies for emissions reduction and environmental efficiency, capabilities that continue to be highly relevant as the world transitions towards a low carbon economy.
As we address these challenges with our customers, we're ensuring we keep one foot in today and one foot in tomorrow, and this enables us to be both practical about the realities our customers are facing in today's world, and yet deliver better designed, lighter, or more efficient products that help them move increasingly towards a lower carbon future. Active portfolio management is something our board continuously focuses on, evaluating our operating businesses in terms of their strategic fit in order to maximize group operating efficiency and optimize value for shareholders. In that context, we have some excellent Aerostructures businesses with robust order books, good content across all the important growth platforms, and which are getting stronger as build rates increase.
However, they don't necessarily fit with our fluid conveyance and thermal management strategic focus, and therefore we continue to progress strategic options for our Aerostructures business, including the potential divestment of the business. Within the period, revenue in Aerostructures grew strongly by 16%, from GBP 121.9 million to GBP 141.2 million on a constant currency basis. We have secured notable new contract awards from various customers and important contract renewals, bringing pricing up to date, and continue to have multiple ongoing discussions regarding attractive new business opportunities. Our strategic intention is clear, driven by our commitment to deliver enhanced value for our shareholders and other stakeholders, and we look forward to updating you further when we have something concrete to say. Sustainability is a central theme of our purpose, our strategy, and indeed, our technology roadmap.
Importantly, therefore, we're making great progress as an organization in terms of our own sustainability actions. With regard to our actions on climate change, we remain on track to deliver our 2025 near-term Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, which in 2020 were approved and verified through the Science-Based Targets Initiative, as well as our long-term net zero targets, which were approved and verified by SBTi last October. And you may recall that earlier this year, we were pleased to announce that for the second year running, we were one of a small number of companies to be awarded the prestigious A rating from CDP for our climate disclosure and actions, and we're also A-rated by CDP for the work we are doing with suppliers on climate.
Since then, we won a prestigious award from Safran, recognizing our efforts in this area. Our focus on the social and governance aspects of ESG is unwavering, with continued high performance and progress on aspects such as safety, diversity, and inclusivity. So let me finish by talking about the outlook for Senior. Senior has delivered a robust set of results that are in line with our expectations. For the full year, we still expect to maintain good performance in Flexonics, with H1 slightly higher than H2. Robust demand in our downstream oil and gas and nuclear business is helping to offset the ongoing rebalancing of inventory by our upstream oil and gas customers and the return to more typical levels of land vehicle market demand.
The group's diversified position across key civil and defense aircraft platforms, strong order intake, and increasing aircraft build rates are expected to drive good growth in aerospace for the full year. Regarding the 737 MAX, we've agreed sensible schedules with Boeing and other customers that take into account production demand and current customer inventory levels. For the aerospace division as a whole, higher volumes, operational efficiency benefits, and improved pricing are expected to result in H2 performance being higher than H1. Overall, the board's expectations of good growth for the group in 2024 are unchanged. So with that, we'll open the floor for any questions, which Bindi and I will be delighted to answer. Morning, Andy. I think you were first in.
Good morning, team. Three questions, please, and I'll come back if my other two questions aren't answered. Can you talk a little bit more about Spencer? It wasn't in the presentation today, but it was in the announcement. Clearly strong growth there. So can you just give us a, an update on how that is progressing clearly well, but what's driving that 40% growth? And can you also just give us an update on where you think you are in terms of Europe? Because that's clearly an opportunity as well. So if you can just go through those, that would be great.
Yeah.
Do you want it one by one, or do you want all now? One by one.
I can only do one at a time.
Let's do one at a time.
So, well, Spencer, yes, no, good point. So you remember that at the full year results, we said we'd grown 50%, or Spencer had grown 50% in 2023 compared to 2022. So we actually grew 42% in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year. So that really strong growth is continuing, and we expect that to continue this year, the rest of this year and into next year. And just as a reminder, these are highly engineered hydraulic fluid fittings that become standard parts after very detailed development and qualification on a range of aircraft, commercial aircraft, but also defense aircraft. So it's like a pipeline.
And we knew this when we bought Spencer, and that they'd already qualified a lot of these new products, and we keep that conveyor belt going. So as soon as the parts become qualified, they get added to the contracts effectively and become available to everybody who buys that type of connector. So that's why we're seeing that tremendous growth. We always knew this. But also because they're fulfilling a gap in the market. You know, customers have been frustrated with incumbents, and Spencer's performance on quality and on-time delivery is exceptional. You know, they have been affected by Boeing in the same way that everybody else has been, 'cause they have a lot in the 737. So that 42% growth is despite-
Yeah
... you know, having lower sales than expected in Boeing, but everything, everything else they're working on is really good. And then, in regard to Europe, they've got this collaborative effort with our business in France, Senior Aerospace Ermeto, to penetrate the European market, and that's going very well. So we have had our first orders from Europe for Spencer, but also for Ermeto, working in collaboration with Spencer. And, we're close to a much more significant entry into the European commercial aerospace market. Trying to get Spencer added to the approved suppliers list, for, you know, Airbus and the whole Airbus ecosystem. So those productive discussions continue. So couldn't be happier, actually, with the progress on Spencer.
Profit-wise, you know, I, I think I did mention the full year, they were impacted a little bit like everybody else was with high inflation and everything, but that, you know, good profits are really coming through now as the benefit of our operational efficiencies take hold and indeed, the pricing actions that we've introduced. So yeah, good. We're very happy with our Spencer acquisition.
Good. On the 737 MAX, clearly, that's been moved down in terms of the near-term rates. Can you just talk to us about how you're managing that cost base? 'Cause it's quite a tricky one. You've got a near-term drop-off, yet you've got to make sure that you're fully staffed for a recovery over the next however many years. So is it short-term temporary labor, take cost out, get it back? How, how do you manage that? And I guess similar one for Flexonics and Truck.
Sure.
Yeah. On the businesses most affected by the 737 MAX, I mean, coming into the year, obviously, we were resourced for a higher build rate. And you know, while we were waiting, at our customer's request, we hung on to that higher resource until we got better clarity on the anticipated future demand on those products. So now that we have agreed sensible production schedules with Boeing and other customers on the MAX, we are realigning that cost base. So it's primarily headcount, direct and indirect as well, coming off. So, I'm not going to give you the percentages, but the reduction in the headcount we've seen is broadly matching the reduction in the build rates we've seen from what was anticipated at the start of the year.
There's a balance because-
Yeah
... at the same time, we have fantastic new opportunities for those Pacific Northwest businesses, which are the two most affected, AMT and Damar. So, you know, we were in active dialogue with Boeing and other customers about additional contracts for that, for those factories. So it is a balance.
In Flexonics, again, coming into the year, we were expecting in line with what ACT Research was saying in terms of the truck market being down lower, although it's normalizing from a very strong 2023. So it's just making sure we, we had the right resource and headcount in those businesses. But at the very start, we talked about maintaining double-digit margins in Flexonics, and that's exactly what we've delivered for the first half of the year, and we expect to maintain double-digit margins for the full year 2024.
So in Germany, specifically, where market conditions have been toughest, our factory has moved to what they call a four-day week. That's supported by the German government for the 50, and it's not exclusive to us. It's across the whole industry. So that's temporary until demand picks up again.
And then last one is slightly big picture question on technology. You talked about one foot in today and one foot in tomorrow. Over the last six months, where would you kind of pick out the most that you're most pleased with the technological progress that you've made kind of behind the scenes, which hopefully kicks in over the next few years?
Yeah. So I think our, you know, a few things I would highlight there. So firstly, if you look at the work we're doing on battery cooling, you know, we were successful in securing contracts on the first all-electric heavy-duty truck in the world, which is in Europe. We started off actually cooling the electronics rather than the battery. Now we're doing the fluid conveyance products that takes the cooling fluid to the battery pack, so that's been some good additional scope and shape of things to come. We've done a lot of work in hydrogen. So we see hydrogen as a great opportunity long term in the aerospace, nearer term in probably heavy-duty truck and probably off-highway vehicles as well.
So we're actively working with our big, customers that we've traditionally worked with, who are looking at things like electrolyzers, for example. And then one of my favorite, highlights was, just last week, we announced the, the contract with Deutsche Aircraft for the bleed air and EBU engine build-up system, on their new, 328 EcoProp, which is a very sustainable aircraft, new engines, runs on sustainable aviation fuel. So that system takes the air that we provide, it's a high-pressure inducting system, takes the bleed air off the engine and feeds it into the environmental control system of the aircraft. It's, 3,500 regional turboprops around the world, so they hope to get, you know, a good slice of that replacement market.
Lots of techniques and features are built in to make that a very environmentally friendly aircraft, and, you know, the work that we're doing is a big part of that. So just three elements.
Just one other to add to that is on the additive side. So our advanced additive manufacturing center in California is also making good progress, particularly using additive techniques on specifically additive design products for military applications as well.
Superb. Thank you.
Thank you. Richard Page from Deutsche Numis-
Morning, Richard.
Morning. Just a couple from me, so I'll keep it on the pattern of one at a time. Just on supply chains, your noticeable dialogue there, it feels as though you've improved and you're feeling more confident there. Given current industry situation as well, is that helping you win new business, please?
Yes, indirectly or directly. I think our operational performance and the vast majority of our business is really good in terms of quality and delivery, and on-time delivery, and our ability to manage the supply chain is part of that. I think I said earlier this year, we had one business in particular that was really struggling with supply of things like flanges. We've managed to fix that now, so now we're able to sort of catch up in that particular business, but everywhere else has been performing very well. So we've done a lot of self-help. So in that particular instance, we qualified two additional suppliers, paid a little bit more for that, but that was necessary in the meantime.
And you'll also notice from our working capital, we are carrying a bit of extra inventory, just to protect our supply lines, and we'll do that until things settle down a lot. So that self-help, it certainly puts us in a pretty good position. I'm not saying everything's perfect. There's one or two hotspots, you know, very large castings affect our business that uses those in the same way that affects the engine customers, for example. But by and large, we're much better than we were. But yeah, given that overall ecosystem I described, where there's big challenges, particularly on engine and interiors, as Airbus and Boeing have both said, I think it leaves companies like ours very well-placed to win new business. So we...
At the air show in Farnborough two weeks ago, we had really positive discussions with our customers on new business, and that performance is part of it.
Excellent. Thank you. And on pricing, it looks like you've made significant progress in the first half. Where, whereabouts are you in terms of that negotiation with your customers, and where does that place you? Is there more to come?
Definitely more to come. You know, we, we've done a lot of the heavy lifting, and as I said before, you know, this isn't some big adversarial discussion with customers. This is a value-based pricing discussion that takes account of inflation rates. So, yes, we've got quite a lot of price increase. Flexonics was first, and that's reflected in the margin improvement. Second half of this year, we all said pricing was kicking in, so that will help aerospace in the second half. We've got more already agreed for January next year on some big programs. We've even got some agreed for January 2026 on some other very big programs, and there are several large negotiations that continue that we would expect to close in the second half of this year.
As I say, these are being done on a constructive and positive basis with our customers. So, a lot's done, a lot's already agreed to cut in, but still some more to deliver as well. Any more on that, Bindi?
Okay, thank you.
Any more questions? Thank you. Okay, no more? Fantastic. Well, if there are any more afterwards, by all means, contact myself, Bindi, or Tom, or Gulshan from, like, September, when Gulshan comes back from maternity leave. She sneaked out to join us today. So, thank you very much for coming, everybody, and look forward to carrying on the discussions.
Thank you.