Jim Nicol, CEO of Tomkins plc, said: "The Group continued to show encouraging improvement in both sales and adjusted operating profit in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2009. Increased volumes were driven by greater than anticipated demand throughout our global industrial and automotive end markets, as well as some restocking.
“These higher volumes, coupled with the benefits from our restructuring initiatives, have resulted in further margin increases with the Group as a whole delivering a double-digit margin in the first quarter of 2010. The majority of our end markets have stabilised or begun to recover and several appear to be demonstrating some sustainable improvement, but the strength and durability of any recovery remains uncertain. We have increased our expectations for a number of end markets such as North American industrial, automotive aftermarket and automotive original equipment markets.”
