Shares in a Lancashire-headquartered aerospace components maker have rocketed by 25% after it revealed a multimillion-pound contract with a "tier one" manufacturer.
Velocity Composites has signed a new three-year contract with the aerostructures manufacturer based in Hampshire.
The Burnley-headquartered listed company has not revealed the name of the customer but major aerospace businesses based in the county include Boeing, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Airbus and GKN.
The contract includes both an extension in the term of an existing five-year agreement entered in August 2016 and the award of new business covering the remaining additional programmes in production at the customer site, starting immediately.
The contract will run until August 31, 2024, and expands the long-standing relationship between the customer and Velocity to supply a fully-managed structural material and kitting service for existing and new aerostructure work packages.
Services provided by Velocity to the customer under the contract have an expected annual value of £4.1m, including the awarded £1.4m of new business on the A350, A400M and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft platforms.
Jon Bridges, chief executive of Velocity, said: "Execution of this contract extension and new business award with the customer is an important milestone for Velocity, with our key customer reaffirming and strengthening our relationship.
"Together we have been successful in leveraging our material efficiency technologies and excellent service history to provide the customer with a more competitive and compelling offering, enabling a full offload of composite management and kitting services from the customer to our Fareham facility.
"The signature of this contract will directly protect existing jobs and enable new opportunities at our manufacturing site as we look to grow further and fully recover from the Covid-19 impacts to our business.
"The customer and Velocity have committed to a future partnership together in the UK and we look forward to further expanding this relationship with their other group manufacturing sites in Europe and internationally."
