Revenues have risen by a quarter at Ellesmere Port-headquartered brake manufacturer Surface Transforms, with chairman David Bundred hailing "encouraging" first-half results.

The company has posted a turnover of £782,000 for the six months to 30 November 2015, up by 26 per cent on a year earlier. Surface Transforms attributed the rise to a catch-up in sales delayed in the previous year following its furnace breakdown in May 2015 including approximately £107,000 from increased aircraft customer revenues.

Losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, including tax credits and excluding share-based payments, narrowed to £27,000 from £165,000 over the same period. And pre-tax losses narrowed to £430,000 from £471,000.

Surface Transforms told investors that historically its trading pattern involved higher revenues in the second half of the year. But given that its first half was boosted by catch-up sales, it advised that second-half performance is likely to be comparable to that achieved in the first half.

Meanwhile, Surface Transforms reported progress on work on a variety of 'game-changing contracts'.

It said that the progress with automotive original equipment manufacturers was likely to require new capacity and floor space, and outlined plans to bring the additional capacity on-stream over the next 18 months in time for the commencement of car production in the middle of 2018. The company revealed that it has now identified a preferred site for the pilot plant and is in negotiations with the site owner on rental terms.

Bundred said: "These are encouraging first-half operating results which have been achieved against the background of considerable management time and effort also being devoted to the longer term strategic development of the company.

"The board has been able to provide greater detail on the game-changing contracts, reflecting the increasing confidence of the board in the outcome of the customer testing programmes. The testing is going well and the customers are being supportive, all of which provides the board with an increased confidence of being able to announce automotive contract awards during this year."

Surface Transforms has developed brakes for several high-performance vehicles including the Porsche GT3 and the Nissan GT-R.