Victrex shares surged as much as 14% on Wednesday after the specialty chemicals maker raised its full-year profit guidance, offering the clearest evidence yet that chief executive James Routh’s turnaround plan is beginning to bear fruit.
The Thornton-Cleveleys-based group, which makes PEEK and PAEK high-performance polymers for the aerospace, automotive, electronics and medical device industries, said in a pre-close trading update published before Wednesday’s market open that it now expects underlying pre-tax profit for FY2026 of £45m-£47m, up from prior guidance of £42m-£44m. The upgrade reflects continued momentum through the fourth quarter since its update in early July.
The news marks a sharp reversal in tone. In the first half of the financial year, Victrex reported an 18% fall in underlying pre-tax profit to £19m and swung to a reported pre-tax loss of £44m after a £60.6m non-cash impairment on its manufacturing plant in Panjin, China. Wednesday’s guidance upgrade is the first hard sign that the recovery promised since then is materialising.
Victrex said growth had been broad-based, spanning its Aerospace, VARs and Electronics end markets and all regions, with particular strength in Asia-Pacific. The company also pointed to early benefits from a completed 10% headcount reduction, part of a wider Profit Improvement Plan targeting at least £10m of annualised savings by FY2027.
“We have maintained our strong momentum during Q4, with revenue growth driven by improved performance across key end markets and all regions. As a result, we now expect full year underlying PBT for FY 2026 to be ahead of our prior guidance,” said Dr James Routh, chief executive of Victrex.
The market reaction was immediate, with shares rising from Tuesday’s close of 869p to around 991p-993p, having touched a session high near 1,018p. The move took shares to a fresh 52-week high, comfortably above the previous peak of 874.99p set earlier in the year. Investors will get more detail on the next phase of the strategy at a Capital Markets Event, “Unlocking Victrex’s Potential”, scheduled for 24 September in London.