Interim Trading Update

Dublin, London 7 May 2024: Mincon Group plc (Euronext:MIO; AIM:MCON), the Irish engineering group specialising in the design, manufacture, sale and servicing of rock drilling tools and associated consumable products, today provides a trading update for the period from 1st January 2024 to date, incorporating the first quarter to 31st March 2024.

Q1 continued to be challenging with emerging positive signs of recovery in Q2

As previously noted, the subdued market environment in H2 2023 continued over into the new year, with Q1 2024 revenues broadly flat compared with Q4 2023. During Q1 2024, we saw some contraction in construction activity in North America and Europe and a slight contraction in our mining & geothermal/waterwell revenue which have had an adverse impact on Group margins. However, toward the end of Q1, order books have begun to recover. This has given us optimism for our performance in Q2 2024 and the remainder of the year.

Though mining has contracted slightly in the period, we have more recently seen specific large mining customers return to a more regular ordering process as they have now largely normalised their inventory levels post the Covid pandemic. We have the capacity in our factories to increase our production in Q2 which will give us momentum to build back our profits for the remainder of 2024.

Orders for large construction projects did not materialise in Q1, however the pipeline for these projects remains strong. We are hopeful that, if there is more clarity on the interest rate environment these projects will be progressed in H2 2024.

Continued focus on driving operational efficiency across the business

We have committed management resources to conduct a root and branch review of our operations to ensure we support our long-term focus on increasing the profitable parts of the business and driving operational efficiency. We have made further progress year to date on reducing our working capital position, specifically through the reduction of our inventory holding.

As part of our ongoing review of the business we have decided to close our carbide manufacturing business in Sheffield. This will take effect later this year and in the meantime the business will continue to supply our bit manufacturing subsidiaries with carbide while those Mincon companies transition to alternative and lower cost carbide supply.

Positive signals in product development

We are pleased with progress on our major product development projects including Greenhammer and Subsea. Greenhammer is running on an extended (and remunerated) test on a copper mine in Arizona in conjunction with one of the world's leading rig manufacturers with positive results. Subsea has met a number of key milestones with some of the leading developers in offshore wind in attendance to witness same.

Outlook

After a difficult start to the year, we are positive about the outlook for the remainder of 2024 and are confident that the changes made on foot of the business review allied with the positive impact of our new products will drive margins and growth in the longer term.

7th May 2024