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Thermal energy management and pumping specialist Spirax-Sarco Engineering said its operating profit had fallen in the first four months of the year amid pressure from the Covid-19 crisis.
The company, however, said operating margins remained above 21% due to cost containment actions.
Spirax-Sarco Engineering said the global macro-economic environment had worsened significantly since the announcement of its preliminary results on 11 March.
Organic sales had fallen 5% in the four months through April, with reported sales down 3%, reflecting the inclusion of Thermocoax and a currency headwind.
'While trading in the first four months of the year has held up well, we currently believe the worst of the downturn will occur in the second and third quarters of 2020,' the company said.
'Absent a resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic in the second half of the year, we currently expect trading conditions to improve in the last quarter of 2020, resulting in a lower contraction of organic sales in the second half of 2020 than in the first half.'
'As a result of cost containment and efficiency improvement initiatives that have been put in place, we currently anticipate that the full year drop through of total revenue decline to operating profit in 2020 will be contained to around 45%.'