New airport scanners that allow passengers to keep their liquids in their bags, as used at London City Airport, helped annual profits rise beyond £500 million at 172-year-old engineering firm Smiths Group.
The group revealed today that operating profit in the year to 31 July rose by 20% to £501 million, as revenue exceeded £3 billion.
Roughly a third of that revenue came from products developed in the last five years, with one of the top items being 3D CT scanners for security scans, which allow passengers to pass through airport security without removing liquids or laptops from their bags.
Smiths Group CFO Clare Scherrer said: “Passengers love it and airports love it because it makes everything faster.”
The group has delivered around 1,000 of the machines so far, but hopes to deliver roughly 2,000 more.
“We’re maybe a third of the way through - the majority is still to come,” Sherrer said. “The big push is to have everything upgraded by June of 2024.
“There’s regulation rushing the adoption but there’s also passenger experience and economics.”
The business is also heavily involved in the energy sector, including a number of major energy transition projects. Following Rishi Sunak walking back a lot of the Government’s environmental pledges lasrt week, Scherrer said the change of policy didn’t affect how Smiths will work.
“It doesn’t change anything about our commitment to the UK or London, nor does it change anything about our commitment to net zero,” she said. “We’re hiring meaningfully in the UK. And as for net zero, the world may change what slope they’re on in terms of what pace, but it’s very clear what direction the world is headed.”
