Sedgefield's Filtronic hails growing order book

A technology firm supporting Elon Musk’s space odyssey says it is primed for market expansion amid rising demand.

Sedgefield’s Filtronic is in “advanced discussions for further contracts in the space, aerospace and defence market”.

Bosses at the NETPark-headquartered company say its progress has been buoyed by “smaller development contract wins in recent months” and upgrades to its “technology roadmap”.

It has also been spurred by a previously-announced headline deal to supply rocket and spacecraft maker SpaceX with power amplifiers and similar products for its Starlink constellation, which uses low Earth orbit satellites to deliver high-speed internet connections.

In a stock market progress report revealed today (Thursday, October 31), a spokesperson said: “We are in advanced discussions for some further contracts in the space, aerospace and defence market, which we hope to provide updates on soon, and have enjoyed some smaller development contract wins in recent months.

“Of particular note are a couple of contract wins in the space market, utilising our recent investment in plastic encapsulation machinery.

“Encouraged to purchase by our lead defence customer for sovereign capability, we are now seeing wider interest in the technology offering throughout our core markets.”

The update comes after officials last week revealed the firm is fitting two new production lines to its County Durham base, which it says will boost productivity at the company – which makes parts for telecommunications networks – by as much as 75 per cent.

It comes ahead of Filtronic moving to a “purpose-built” NETPark base early next year, which it says will double manufacturing space “and significantly expand production capabilities.”

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