McMurtry to bank €15m after record figures
Billionaire Dubliner’s Renishaw sees sales break €600m barrier for first time, writes John Reynolds
DUBLIN-BORN billionaire engineer, inventor and co-founder of precision measurement device maker Renishaw, David McMurtry, is set to add a €15m dividend to his €1.2bn fortune on the back of a record €600m sales the company reported this week.
The global manufacturer, which is headquartered just outside Bristol in England, saw a 25pc increase in profits for its 2017 financial year, with sales of its precision measurement devices in its metrology division having risen by 26pc – €116m – to €602m (£536.8m), exceeding €600m (£500m) for the first time.
McMurtry (77) — a native of Clontarf and one of Ireland’s most successful engineers — has a 36pc stake worth €1.2bn in the FTSE 250-listed firm, and will bank a €15.4m (£13.7m) dividend of 52p (€0.58) per share in October.
The firm’s main markets for growth were the manufacturing powerhouses of China, the US, Germany and Japan, the company said.
Almost half of sales were made in the Far East, where Renishaw supplies contract manufacturers that make Apple iPhones and Samsung smartphones such as the Chinese technology giant Foxconn.
“Our devices are helping manufacturers increase their speed of operation, reducing cost and increasing efficiency.
“They are also becoming easier to use, so that less skilled staff working in our customers’ businesses can use them.
“Manufacturers of semiconductors [computer chips], cosmetics, car and plane engines, as well as consumer electronics want to increase their accuracy and precision,” McMurtry added.
Renishaw has a growing 3D printing division and has recently sold 3D printing systems to Airbus in the UK as well as Spain’s Centre for Advanced Aerospace Technologies, it confirmed.
In Spain it is part of a project to make new high-performance turbine blades for jet engines. These will be manufactured using a 3D printing technique called additive manufacturing, which reduces the amount of raw materials required while speeding up product development time.
The blades will be made of a lightweight metal alloy, providing reductions in weight and an increased resistance to high temperatures, in keeping with tougher environmental regulations and the needs of the latest generation of jet engines.
Another business case that has come to light where Renishaw helps manufacturers become more efficient is where German jet washer manufacturer Karcher was able to reduce the cooling time during the process of making the bright yellow casings for its machines.
Using 3D printing, the cooling time for a casing was reduced from 22 seconds to 10 seconds, and the capacity of one of Karcher’s moulding machines to make the casings increased from 1,496 casings a day to 2,101.
Despite Renishaw’s success, it is closing a Scottish medical testing and analysis subsidiary, and a small spatial laser measurement solutions division, whose scanners are used for surveying in the mining and marine sectors.
In February, it emerged that Renishaw is a supplier of laser measurement components called optical and magnetic encoders, which are used in drones, planes and self-driving cars.
The firm — which has gone from strength to strength since the early 1970s, when McMurtry worked as an engineer for Rolls-Royce on engines for the legendary Concorde aircraft — employs over 4,000 people around the world, including about 220 in Swords, North Dublin.