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Mpac Group plc

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FY2017 Annual Report · Mpac Group plc
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Ingenious 
Packaging 
Solutions

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) 
Annual Report and Accounts 2017

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Who we are

Mpac Group plc is an international company,  
listed on the London Stock Exchange 
(symbol: MPAC), with a long and proud 
history of delivering innovation and 
excellence on a global basis.

The business is focused on creating high 
speed production lines that package the 
products that millions of people worldwide 
depend on.

Our strategic priorities

Going for Growth
Offering customers 
comprehensive “Make, Pack, 
Test, Service” solutions in our 
target markets.

Make Service a Business
Providing customers with a 
comprehensive portfolio of Service 
products to ensure they maximise 
their return on investment.

Operational Efficiency 
Operational excellence and 
flexibility of supply chain to 
increase responsiveness to 
investment cycles.

  Read more P12

Highlights

Contents
Strategic Report
2  Our business at a glance
4  Chairman’s introduction
9  Operating review
14  Business model and strategy
18  Financial review
22  Principal risks and uncertainties

Corporate Governance
24  Chairman’s report
27  Board of directors
28  Audit Committee report
30  Remuneration Committee report
31  Remuneration report
33  Remuneration policy
38  Directors’ report
40  Directors’ responsibilities statement

Financial Statements
41 
Independent Auditor’s report
46  Consolidated income statement
47  Statements of comprehensive income
48  Statements of changes in equity
50  Statements of financial position
51  Statements of cash flow
52  Accounting policies
57  Notes to the accounts

88  Five year record
89  Principal divisions and subsidiaries
90  Notice of meeting
98  Corporate information

Find out more online
mpac-group.com

Sales1

£53.4m

(2016: £41.5m)

Underlying profit before tax2

£1.1m

(2016: £1.5m loss)

Operating profit1

£4.6m

(2016: £2.9m loss)

Profit before tax1

£4.3m

(2016: £3.1m loss)

Underlying earnings per share2

Net cash

4.2p

£29.4m

(2016: 6.0p loss per share)

(2016: £0.8m)

  Excellent progress on the strategic initiatives

  Increase in order intake from continuing operations of 21%  

and order book 35% higher than at the start of 2017

  Sales from continuing activities of £53.4m (2016: £41.5m)

  Underlying profit before tax of £1.1m (2016: £1.5m loss) 

  Statutory profit before tax from continuing activities of £4.3m 

(2016: £3.1m loss) 

  Statutory profit after tax of £1.6m (2016: £0.6m loss)

  Underlying earnings per share of 4.2p (2016: loss of 6.0p) 

  Basic earnings per share from continuing activities of 12.2p 

(2016: loss of 12.3p)

  Net cash of £29.4m (2016: £0.8m) 

  Sale of the Instrumentation and Tobacco Machinery  

(I&TM) business 

  The Directors have decided not to recommend payment  

of a final dividend

Notes
1  From continuing operations
2  From continuing operations and adjusted to exclude non-underlying items as disclosed in 

note 5 to the Financial statements and reconciled in the Financial review on page 19

PB

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

1

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTOur business  
at a glance

One Mpac
Following the sale of the Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery division, the Group is now focused on the 
growth of its core Packaging Machinery business.

The Group leverages its engineering expertise with 
cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and proven 
machinery designs and supports its customers with world 
class services, delivered locally. 

Packaging Machinery
Mpac Langen design, precision engineer and manufacture 
high speed packaging solutions, first-of-a-kind machinery 
and high specification automation, secondary packaging 
equipment and end-of-line robotics and at-line 
instrumentation and testing solutions. As well as 
providing complete turnkey solutions including the design 
and integration of packaging systems.

Our markets

Healthcare
Supporting healthcare industries as 
diverse as contact lenses, facial 
tissues and dentifrice. Mpac supplies 
innovative first-of-a-kind machinery 
as well as standard packing and 
testing equipment.

  Read more P14

Pharmaceutical
To meet our customers’ diverse and 
specialised demands, Mpac offers a 
first-of-a-kind service for novel 
dosing and packaging. Process 
assurance via standard and custom 
test equipment is available.

  Read more P14

Food & Beverage
Providing innovative solutions for 
secondary and end-of-line 
packaging. Cartoning and case 
packing of bags, stick packs, 
pouches, flow wrapped products, 
bottles and more to our customers’ 
requirements.

  Read more P14

Sales by Market (£m)

£4.8m

£13.0m

£28.2m

£7.4m

Healthcare

Pharmaceutical

Food and Beverage

Other

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Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

3

Where we operate

The Group serves its customers through its  
wide geographic spread of sales, service and 
manufacturing locations.

We support our international customer base  
through shared resources and infrastructure.

   Americas

 Established for more than 50 years in the region, 
the Group operates from its facilities in 
Ontario, Canada.

  Europe, Middle East & Africa

 The Group supports both its multinational and 
regional customers from its sites in the UK and the 
Netherlands; together with extensive sales, 
engineering and field support services deployed 
across the region.

  Asia Pacific

 The Group supports the region from its principal  
base in Singapore as well as through its field 
service engineers and agents across Asia Pacific.

Sales by Region (£m)

£9.8m

£20.4m

£23.2m

Americas

Europe, Middle East & Africa

Asia Pacific

2

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

3

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORT 
 
 
Chairman’s 
introduction

Phil Moorhouse, Chairman

2017 has been a year of 
transformational change within 
the Company. In line with the Group’s 
strategic review undertaken in 
2016 by the Board, the sale of the 
Group’s Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery (I&TM) businesses was 
completed in August 2017. 

Good progress was made against 
our strategic objectives for the 
continuing business. The packaging 
machinery business is focused on the 
high growth Pharmaceutical, 
Healthcare and Food and Beverage 
markets, which are supported by 
fundamental growth drivers in 
these target markets.

As part of the disposal, the name 
Molins was sold providing the 
opportunity to rebrand, and 
change the name of the Group 
to Mpac Group plc.

On pages 24 to 26 I discuss 
corporate governance and the 
Board’s activities during the year.

Summary of results
The performance of the continuing 
operations within the Group was 
positive with order intake growing 
by 21% to £61.1m. Group 
continuing revenues at £53.4m 
increased by 29% while underlying 
profit before tax was in line with 
market expectations at £1.1m, an 
increase of £2.6m over the £1.5m 
loss recorded in 2016.

Group net cash ended the year at 
£29.4m following receipt of the 
proceeds on disposal of the I&TM 
division, and the sale of the Group’s 
Canadian building.

Board Changes
I would like to welcome Jim Haughey 
to the Board as Group Finance 
Director. Jim joined us in October 
2017 and brings with him extensive 
experience in the engineering sector 
through the senior finance roles he 
has held at Bodycote Plc, FKI plc and 
Bridon Group.

I would also like to take this 
opportunity to thank David Cowen, 
who left the Board in September 
2017, for the 18 years of service he 
provided to the Company as Group 
Finance Director. 

Dividend
Having considered the trading  
results for 2017, together with the 
opportunities for investment in the 
growth of the Company, the Board 
has decided that it is appropriate not 
to pay a final dividend. No interim 
dividend was paid in 2017. Future 
dividend payments and the 
development of a new dividend policy 
will be considered by the Board in the 
context of 2018 trading performance 
and when the Board believes it is 
prudent to do so. 

Outlook
I consider that the prospects for the 
Company are positive, as the sales 
and profit growth initiatives put in 
place by the leadership team 
continue to develop, and I look 
forward to reporting on the progress 
that will be made during 2018.

4
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Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017
Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

5

GOING FOR

GLOBAL GROWTH

As a result of our strategic review, we identified three key 
initiatives – going for growth, make service a business and 
operational efficiency to achieve sustainable, profitable growth.

2017 was a transformational year
  Introduced a new management team.

  Created a new sales approach and commercial  
excellence programme to increase our win ratio.

  Disposed of tobacco businesses to focus on our  

three key markets.

  Opened a new showcase facility in Canada to develop  

closer relationships with our customers.

  Opened a new office in Singapore to support  

customers in Asia.

  Formed a new team to make service a business.

4

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017
Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

5
5

2018 is a  
new chapter in 
our story that 
started in 1874

  Changed our name to Mpac, reflecting our  
rich heritage and our focus on the future as  
a global leader in packaging solutions.

  The Langen name has been retained because  

it is well regarded in our markets.

  Re-positioned ourselves as a strategic partner  

adding long-term value to our customers.

  Launched a new brand identity and new website.

6

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

7

“ The new brand 
identity provides  
a flexible 
framework for 
future acquisitions”

Building our brand  
and developing our people
  Combine our expertise and organisational excellence  

to improve efficiencies.

  Strengthen our key account management.

  Work more closely with our customers to understand  

their needs.

  Launch new and better products in our three key  

markets throughout the year.

  Implement commercial excellence programme  

with training to extend our geographic reach.

6

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

7

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORT2019 Achieve 
sustainable, 
profitable growth

  Drive sustainable growth and margin enhancement -  

targeting 10% annual organic revenue growth,  
10% return on sales over medium term.

  Build full solution capabilities in our target markets,  

be more flexible and responsive and easier to work with.

  Reduce our lead times and improve our competitiveness  

by integrating our sales, service, project management, 
engineering and supply chain.

8
8

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017
Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

9

Operating 
review

Tony Steels, Chief Executive

I am delighted to present my report 
following my first full year as Chief 
Executive of Mpac Group plc. As I 
commented last year, I believe the 
business has great opportunities 
based on the following fundamental 
strengths:

 › Robust long term growth drivers 

in our target markets

 › Heritage of innovative, high speed 
packaging machinery solutions
 › Global reach with embedded local 
presence providing exceptional 
service to our customers

 › A talented and engaged workforce

Having now spent over a year visiting 
our facilities, engaging with our 
employees and our customers around 
the world, I believe that these 
fundamental strengths place Mpac in a 
strong position for continued growth. 

The Group’s continuing packaging 
machinery business is focused on the 
high growth Pharmaceutical, 
Healthcare and Food and Beverage 
markets, which are expected to enjoy 
long term growth rates of between 
4 to 5%.

Mpac serves customer needs for 
Ingenious, Innovative Packaging 
Machinery encompassing, Make, 
Pack, Test and Service. We design, 
precision engineer and manufacture 
high speed packaging solutions, 
first-of-a-kind machinery and high 
specification automation, secondary 

packaging equipment and end-of-
line robotics and at-line 
instrumentation and testing 
solutions. In addition, we provide 
complete turnkey solutions including 
the design and integration of 
packaging systems. 

Trading
Trading improved markedly in 2017. 
Order intake for the Group grew by 
21% to £61.1m as the Group’s growth 
strategies started to gain traction 
within the organisation. 

Group continuing revenues of 
£53.4m increased by 29% as the 
impact of the improved order intake 
increased the work load on our 
operational facilities. Overall sales to 
the Pharmaceutical market grew 7%, 
with an increase seen in the service 
business. Sales to the Food and 
Beverage markets grew by 31%, 
while Healthcare grew by 25%.

Underlying profit before tax was in 
line with market expectations at 
£1.1m, an increase of £2.6m over the 
£1.5m underlying loss before tax 
recorded in 2016. 

Group net cash ended the year at 
£29.4m following receipt of the 
proceeds from the disposal of the 
Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery (I&TM) division, net of 
additional pension contributions, of 
£23.5m, and the proceeds on sale of 
the Group’s Canadian property of 
£6.8m. The strong cash position will 
enable the Group to continue to 
invest in the business, both in capital 
items and in the development of 
new products.

Moving forward the Group entered 
2018 with an order book of £34.4m, 
an increase of 35% over the 
December 2016 position of £25.5m.

Strategic developments
2017 has been a year of tangible 
progress on the strategy laid out at 
the start of the year. 

As a result of the strategic initiatives, 
the business performance improved 
compared with the previous year with 
excellent progress on order intake 
delivering increased sales and a 
turnaround to profitability.

8

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017
Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

9
9

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTOperating review 
continued

Sale of Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery (I&TM) division 
The strategic review, which 
concluded in 2016, recognised that 
the Group’s accessible markets have 
two contrasting dynamics: 

 › the Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, 
Food and Beverage end-markets 
for the Group’s Packaging 
Machinery division are expanding 
at up to 5 per cent. per annum and 
have attractive underlying long-
term growth drivers such as 
urbanisation, convenience and 
health awareness; and 

 › the nicotine delivery market, 
although cash generative and 
relatively stable, is undergoing a 
shift as sales of traditional 
products are under pressure due to 
health awareness, government 
taxation schemes and the 
introduction to the market of a 
large number of new nicotine 
delivery products.

On 1 August 2017, the Group 
completed the sale of the I&TM 
division to G.D S.p.a (a subsidiary of 
Coesia S.p.a) for a gross 
consideration of £30.0m. Net 
proceeds, after costs, taxation, and 
additional pension contributions, 
were £23.5m. The sale of this 
division was consistent with the 
strategy adopted by the Board, with 
the tobacco business being identified 
as being relatively low growth, and 
will enhance the platform from which 
to accelerate the growth of the 
continuing Group.

Change of name to Mpac Group plc
The Group took the opportunity to 
refocus the continuing operations 
under a new global brand Mpac 
Group plc, and shareholder approval 
for the change of name was granted 
at a shareholder meeting held in 
January 2018. The rebrand to Mpac 
further reinforces the transition of 
the business to a fully focused 

Packaging Machinery solution 
provider and opens up a new chapter 
in the Company’s history.

Sale of property in Canada 
In line with the plans to improve the 
operational efficiency of the Group, 
in December 2017, the Company’s 
Canadian subsidiary company, 
Langen Packaging Inc (Langen), 
completed the sale of its freehold 
property at 6154 Kestrel Road, 
Mississauga, Ontario for a gross 
consideration of C$11.7m. The 
business has moved into a purpose-
built facility in the same region.

The newly built facility provides a 
superb environment from which to 
operate, including a customer 
showroom to showcase its 
capabilities, assembly and 
acceptance facilities that enables 
Mpac to serve its customers even 
more effectively, with a workplace for 
employees to be proud of. This facility 
provides a platform for further growth 
in the Americas region.

The proceeds from the sale of both 
the I&TM division and the Canadian 
property is expected to be used for 
the development of the Group in line 
with the strategic objectives of 
organic growth and acquisitions which 
are complementary to our strategy.

New premises in Singapore 
The Group invested in a new 
expanded facility in Singapore, which 
allows the Group to concentrate 
further on supporting our global 
customer network. The new leased 
facilities provide a modern office 
environment which is a positive 
experience for both customers and 
employees, and provides a platform 
for future development of sales in the 
Asia Pacific region.

Restructuring 
During the year the Group took the 
opportunity to strengthen the 
executive leadership team within the 
business, with the addition of a 
Services Director, Human Resources 
Director, and Group Finance Director. 
Following divestment of the I&TM 
division, the new leadership team will 
be more focused on delivering the 
strategic plan and capitalising on the 
positive market dynamics.

Our new customer focused regional 
growth strategy will be further 
enhanced by changes to the 
management team. In 2017 our 
people agenda concentrated on 
transforming our organisational 
structure. Mpac is a relatively small 
company and every person counts. 
Getting the organisation operating 
efficiently is essential to grow the 
business. We made changes in 2017 
to enable us to do that, with a new 
leadership team in Mississauga 
(Canada) and important site 
leadership changes in Wijchen 
(Netherlands) and the development 
of the sales teams throughout 
the Group. 

Restructuring costs were also 
incurred in the closure and move of 
the Mississauga facility. 

Acquisition strategy
The Board continues to evaluate 
potential acquisition opportunities, 
the focus of which is to find 
businesses that will enhance our 
presence in packaging solutions in 
the Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, 
Food and Beverage markets and add 
value to the Group.

Moving forward
Looking ahead, progress made 
towards achieving the three strategic 
priorities, Going for Growth, Make 
Service a Business and Operational 
Efficiency, is highlighted in the 
Strategy Update. 

10

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

11

Business review
The Group aims to achieve double 
digit revenue growth over the 
strategic plan period, delivering an 
improving Return on Sales aimed at 
10%. To support this intent, we 
manage the business in two parts, 
Original Equipment (OE) and Service 
and across three regions, Americas, 
EMEA and Asia.

Individual contracts received by the 
OE business, and to a lesser extent 
the service business, can be large, 
accordingly one significant order can 
have a disproportionate impact on 
the growth rates seen in individual 
markets from year to year.

Original Equipment (OE)
Order intake in the OE business was 
29% ahead of 2016. In the Americas 
and EMEA significant increases in 
order intake were seen across each 
of our main Healthcare, 
Pharmaceutical and Food and 
Beverage markets. Asia also saw 
strong order intake with orders 
received primarily from the Food and 
Beverage markets.

Overall, the OE division saw a 40% 
year on year increase in turnover, 
with sales to the Food and Beverage 
market growing by 47% and sales to 
the Healthcare market saw a growth 
rate of 38%.

Americas sales in the period were 
£16.4m (2016: £13.6m). During the 
year sales to the Food and Beverage 
market more than doubled, while 
sales to the Healthcare market saw a 
growth rate of 23%. 

EMEA sales in the period were 
£15.8m (2016: £11.2m) an increase of 
41%. In the Pharmaceutical markets 
the investment plans of a major 
customer were directed towards 
Europe which resulted in sales to the 
region increasing significantly. In 
2016 a similar sale to the same major 
customer was recorded in the 

Americas. Sales to the Healthcare 
market increased by 60%. Offsetting 
this, a change in mix saw sales to the 
Food and Beverage market 
reduced by 17%. 

Asia Pacific sales, predominantly 
driven by the Food and Beverage 
market, more than doubled in the 
period to £8.2m.

Gross profit margins in the OE 
business increased to 22.8% 
(2016: 18.8%).

Overall order prospects remain 
strong, and activity levels across the 
OE business remain high, such that 
the business is well positioned 
moving into 2018. 

Service
Order intake in the Service division 
was 3% ahead of 2016, and turnover 
increased by 3% year on year to 
£13.0m. A new Services Director 
joined the business in July 2017 and 
has progressed with building the 
Service team. By the end of the year 
the Group further increased focus on 
the expansion of the Service 
business, with the recruitment of a 
number of additional service 
engineers and support staff, which 
will give added momentum to the 
sales projected for 2018. We saw 
progress as the order intake 
increased towards the end of the year.

Americas sales in the period were 
£6.8m (2016: £6.3m). Service sales 
to the Food and Beverage market 
increased by 20%, offsetting a slight 
reduction in sales to the Healthcare 
market. Overall order intake in the 
region was ahead of 2016, with order 
prospects remaining strong as we 
enter 2018. 

EMEA sales in the period were £4.6m 
(2016: £4.6m). Order intake in the 
period was broadly in line with sales. 
The region saw a change in mix in 
sales with an increase in sales to the 
Pharmaceutical market offset by a 

softening in Healthcare activity. Asia 
sales in the period were £1.6m 
(2016: £1.8m). 

A change in mix from spare parts to 
additional equipment sales reduced 
service gross margins in the year.

Outlook
The business made excellent 
progress on its strategic initiatives 
following the sale of the I&TM 
division, a substantial part of the 
Group. Execution of the strategy for 
the continuing business has 
accelerated and is now focused on 
the growth markets in which it 
currently operates, in the 
Pharmaceutical, Healthcare and 
Food and Beverage sectors. The 
Group has both the financial and 
managerial resources available to 
develop the business, with the prime 
focus being on organic growth. This 
will be delivered through the 
leveraging of its global position, 
development of its products and an 
improved services offering to its 
customers. Suitable complementary 
acquisition targets will also be 
considered when identified.

The Company entered 2018 with a 
stronger order book than a year 
before, and with a greater focus. 
Progress continues in the 
development of the continuing 
operations, and with order intake and 
sales both strongly ahead of last year 
the Group’s future prospects 
remain positive. 

Tony Steels
Chief Executive 
6 March 2018

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Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

11

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTOperating review 
continued

Our strategic review identified 
three key initiatives to  
drive growth 

Going for Growth  
Offering customers 
comprehensive “Make, Pack, 
Test, Service” solutions in  
our target markets. 

Make Service a Business 
Providing customers with a 
comprehensive portfolio of 
Service product to ensure  
they maximise their return  
on investment.

Operational Efficiency  
Operational excellence and 
flexibility of supply chain to 
increase responsiveness to  
investment cycles.

Strategy Update

Going for Growth
Our plans were set out last year to 
develop the business through 
organic growth in our target 
markets of Pharmaceutical, 
Healthcare, Food and Beverage.  
To enable this, we created a global 
sales approach under our single 
entity model, offering innovative 
Packaging Machinery solutions 
from our extensive portfolio of 
engineered modules.

The sale of the I&TM division during 
the year was transformational in 
supporting our growth strategy. 
This move will accelerate progress 
in achieving our strategic aims with 
the entire focus of the continuing 
business being the growth markets 
of Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, 
Food and Beverage.

The commercial excellence 
programme implemented last year 
for our global sales and sales 
support teams was focused on 
providing professional training on 
strategic selling to bring the whole 
team to a consistent, higher level of 
performance and on to a common 
set of processes and procedures. 
This new methodology has been 
positively adopted and embedded 
in our CRM system which provides 
strong pipeline management tools.

The move to a new showcase 
facility in Mississauga, near 
Toronto, Canada, was successfully 
completed and provides a 

customer focused environment. 
The innovation centre, customer 
acceptance zones and multiple 
break out rooms will ensure that 
we develop even closer 
customer relationships.

Similarly, post-sale of the I&TM 
division a new office was 
established in Singapore in order to 
ensure our customers continue to 
have locally embedded support and 
to provide us scope to develop our 
growth plans.

During 2018 we will launch the new 
name and branding of Mpac through 
all communication channels and 
showcase the new identity branding 
at major regional exhibitions.

We will continue our commercial 
excellence programme with further 
training modules aimed at 
increasing our win ratio and 
extending our geographic reach.

Key account management growth 
with existing customers is a clear 
target, ensuring we better 
understand their evolving needs and 
extend our customer proposition 
with a broader solution approach.

The growth will be supported by an 
exciting schedule of new product 
launches during 2018.

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Mpac Group plc (formerly Molins PLC) Annual Report and Accounts 2017

13

supply chains for the three 
operational sites. This will provide 
our customers with a flexible and 
responsive global entity able to 
work simultaneously on packaging 
solutions, increasing productivity, 
pooling knowledge, and leveraging 
a common supply chain, resulting 
in reduced lead times and 
improved competitiveness.

Make Service a Business
Our customers have an extensive 
globally installed base which they 
expect to run continuously at high 
levels of Overall Equipment 
Effectiveness. The trends towards 
Industry 4.0 and its enabling 
technological platforms support our 
strategy to work with our customers 
to ensure that they maximise their 
return on investment throughout 
the life-cycle of the equipment. We 
can offer comprehensive service 
programmes to maximise uptime 
and minimise cost of production 
through our global service business.

A new Service business leadership 
team was formed during the year 
bringing in the necessary skills and 
mindset to bring focus to this 
opportunity and offer deliverable 
implementation plans. Onboarding 
the new team and structure 
has begun and is key to the 
future success.

The new facilities in Mississauga 
and Singapore together with our 
European bases provide our 
customers with local direct support 
and a network of expert knowledge 
to draw upon.

An exercise was completed to 
verify the installed base and to 
assess potential customer 
productivity improvement 
opportunities leading to progress 
on developing service agreements 
with key customers.

The focus for the coming year will 
be to ensure that the newly formed 
Service business team work closely 
with every customer to understand 
their needs and to tailor service 

programme agreements aimed at 
productivity improvements.

Excellence in Service will also be an 
initiative focused on quick response 
and high spare part availability for 
our global customers.

Service business growth will be 
supported by new product 
launches during the year enabling 
customers to optimise their 
production processes and improve 
product quality through greater 
equipment connectivity, data 
extraction and interpretation. 

Operational Efficiency
Our stated aim is to be customer 
focused, responsive and flexible 
through organisational excellence, 
underpinned by a global supply 
chain and supported by a single 
entity operating model. The 
disposal of the I&TM division 
reduced the complexity of the 
Group and changed the focus on the 
strategic priorities from right sizing 
to productivity improvements 
through the integration of a 
common systems platform.

A key focus during the year has 
been to build and develop the 
organisational structure and skills 
to deliver the building block of the 
Operational Efficiency initiative and 
as a result the capabilities to 
implement the strategic elements 
of our plan. This has resulted in 
changes to the site leadership in 
Mississauga and Wijchen.

The new operational leadership 
team’s strategic focus during 2018 
will be to integrate the project 
management, engineering and 

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13

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTBusiness model  
and strategy

Our markets

Healthcare

Pharmaceutical

Food & Beverage

Market opportunity
Packaging machinery solutions  
is a very broad sector and our 
accessible markets, 
Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Food 
and Beverage are growing at around 
5% per annum, driven by 
macroeconomic factors such as 
urbanisation, convenience and 
health awareness. 

Mpac has an excellent portfolio of 
global FMCG customers, together 
with large regional players in 
accessible and attractive growth 
markets. In addition, we have a large 
installed base, and with customers 
demanding ever increasing 
operating equipment efficiencies, 
we believe there exists a real 
opportunity to develop a 
contractual based service support 
model that would add incremental 
revenues to Mpac.

Growth rates for packaged products 
vary significantly by region, 
depending on their phase of 
economic development. Asia, South 
America and Africa are each 
forecast to grow between 3 to 5% 
per annum in packaging, driven by 
urbanisation and convenience, 
whereas in Europe and North 
America, where populations are 
more stable, growth is forecast to 
be driven by premiumisation and 
health awareness. Mpac has an 
embedded global footprint and is 
therefore well positioned to exploit 
the opportunities that market 
growth brings.

The extensive product range of 
process and packaging machinery 
solutions supports the whole Make, 
Pack, Test, Service cycle. This 
encompasses primary packaging, 
secondary packaging, 
instrumentation and servicing of 
equipment. Our Langen and Mpac 
brands have solutions focused on 

the Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, 
Food and Beverage sectors. Our 
business offers a concept feasibility 
service to customers, which is key in 
establishing a development 
partnership with the customer at 
the onset of a new innovation in 
product processing and packaging. 
This can be leveraged across our 
global key account customers to 
ensure Mpac is in pole position to 
partner on new projects.

The innovative high speed 
packaging solutions available within 
the Group support the customer 
need for a full solution provider and 
the Group has the necessary 
platforms to support the increased 
market demand for data capture 
and product traceability throughout 
the production process.

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15

Mission
 ›

 To be a global leader of high 
speed packaging solutions 
focused on attractive growth 
markets enhanced by a world 
class service offer programme 
to ensure maximum return on 
customer investments;

 ›

 Customer focused, responsive 
and flexible through operational 
excellence underpinned by  
a global competitive supply  
chain and internal activities  
optimised to maximise efficiency;

 ›

 Broaden application and 
customer scope by leveraging 
market leading technology and 
application know-how.

Business model

i

s
e
c
v
r
e
S

One Mpac

One Mpac

0.0125
0.0125

S
e
r
v
c
e
s

i

Make

Pack

Test

Business model
The Group offers its customers a 
packaging solution customised to 
their requirements using a portfolio 
of proven modules augmented with 
a customer specific product 
package handling solution, which is 
supported by 15% of our employees 
being qualified engineers with in 
depth knowledge and know how.

The next phase is contract 
engineering, procurement and 
manufacturing, leading to assembly, 
test and then site delivery and 
customer acceptance. Common 
processes are all monitored and 
controlled by effective project 
management. Service support is 
then provided through the life of the 
product at the customers’ sites.

The capital equipment market is 
cyclical by its nature with a 
high need for responsiveness and 
flexibility to adapt to customer 
demands and lead time needs, 
seizing the opportunities as 
they arise.

The opportunity exists to exploit 
synergies across the Group, utilising  
best practice across the sites and a 
shared services resource in order to 
improve the operational efficiencies. 

This creates a model whereby we 
can increase utilisation with the 
ability to expand capacity with 
increased demand and reduce 
capacity in periods of lower demand. 

This leads to the transition to a 
single enterprise business model – 
One Mpac.

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15

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTBusiness model and strategy  
continued

Our strategy

Going for Growth

Make Service a Business

Operational Efficiency

2017 progress

 › Commercial excellence 

programme

 › Drive regional sales structure
 › Launch Mpac identity
 › Pipeline management - CRM

 › Create Services business
 › Secure installed base
 › New location and build the team
 › Deliver first service agreements

 › Embed new “One” organisation
 › Move to showcase new facility
 › Build Site Leadership Teams
 › Supply chain optimisation

Future plans

 › Full solution selling
 › Product development roadmap 
 › Key account development
 › Brand and product management

 › Life-cycle ROI proposition
 › Promote contractual agreements
 › Develop product portfolio
Incorporate Industry 4.0
 ›

 › Employee engagement  

and recognition 

 › Shared Engineering and  

Project Management platforms

 › Global supply chain
 › KPIs to support strategy

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17

Key opportunities

The market and customer demands  
are evolving, with a clear need for  
full solutions to their packaging 
requirements supported by a 
comprehensive services 
proposition to ensure maximised 
return on their investments. 
Demand for data capture and 
traceability throughout the product 
life-cycle is also an increasing trend. 

By utilising the impressive array of 
innovative engineering solutions 
throughout the Mpac sites, 
supported by a focused product 
development roadmap targeted on  
the attractive growth markets, we  
will be well positioned to deliver  
growth beyond industry forecasts.

The Group offers first-of-a-kind 
innovative solutions, working with  
the customers’ product 
development engineers and 
marketing functions on the next 
generation of innovative products. 
By partnering with these key global 
customers, Mpac will be well 
positioned to support the customer 
from prototype to series production. 
This capability should be leveraged 
across our global sales team and 
into our global key accounts and 
prospects.

In particular, Service represents a 
key opportunity based on a 
substantial installed base. This will 
benefit from a detailed review of 
current customers to assess the 
potential additional revenue 
opportunities and a customer 
focused approach to transition 
to contractual agreements aimed  
at improved equipment utilisation  
and therefore customer return  
on investment.

Product innovation and 
development is key to growth in the 
large and attractive markets we 
operate in. Our current product 
development roadmap is being 
critically reviewed to ensure it is 
realigned to effectively support 
customer trends in the identified 
growth markets. 

Innovations to the current product 
range are planned to address short 
term needs as well as regional 
nuances, supported by a longer 
term roadmap to ensure we 
supplement the full solution 
objective in our target markets and 
address emerging customer 
demand for increased data capture 
to support maximised utilisation and 
product conformity. 

A move to a regionally focused,  
single business entity model has 
been implemented. New sales and 
service regions have been created 
for the Americas, EMEA and Asia 
Pacific. This is supported by a global 
service business, operations and 
shared services function. 

Customer responsiveness and 
reduced lead times are key 
competitive advantages and as such 
we need to continuously improve. 
By working on a global basis, 
operations and shared services will 
be better able to increase 
operational efficiencies, whilst 
simultaneously creating a flexible 
and responsive manufacturing base 
and supply chain to quickly adapt 
to changes in customer demand and 
investment cycles.

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17

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTFinancial  
review

Jim Haughey, Group Finance Director

Non-underlying items
The net non-underlying operating 
profit for the year was £3.3m (2016: 
£1.7m loss). This comprised £0.8m 
(2016: £0.9m) of administration costs 
relating to the Group’s defined 
benefit pension schemes (see 
Pension schemes section) and 
reorganisation and restructuring 
costs of £0.7m (2016: £0.8m). In 2017 
a profit of £4.8m was realised on the 
sale of property in Canada. Financing 
income/expense on pension scheme 
balances (see Interest and taxation 
section) is also considered to be a 
non-underlying item, as is the profit 
from discontinued operations.

Revenue and operating results
The trading performance of the 
Group is discussed in the Operating 
review. Group revenue in the year 
from continuing operations was 
£53.4m (2016: £41.5m). Sales in the 
Original Equipment (OE) division were 
£40.4m (2016: £28.8m) and gross 
profit was £9.2m (2016: £5.4m). 
Sales in the Service division were 
£13.0m (2016: £12.7m) and gross 
profit was £5.3m (2016: £5.6m). 
Selling, Distribution and Admin costs 
were £13.2m (2016: £12.2m). 

Underlying operating profit was 
£1.3m (2016: £1.2m loss). Underlying 
profit after tax was £0.8m (2016: 
£1.1m loss). Statutory profit for the 
period was £1.6m (2016: £0.6m loss).

The results of the Instrumentation & 
Tobacco Machinery (I&TM) division 
were treated as a discontinued 
activity during the year.

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19

Key performance 
indicators

Sales1

£53.4m

2017

£53.4m

2016

2017
2015

2016
2014

2015
2013

2017
2017
2016
2016
2015
2015
2014
2014
2013
2013

£41.5m

£53.4m
£53.4m

£41.5m
£41.5m

£53.4m

£51.0m

£41.5m
£40.5m

£51.0m
£51.0m

£51.0m

£44.3m

£40.5m
£40.5m

2014

£40.5m
£44.3m
£44.3m
Underlying operating  
return on sales1

2013

£44.3m

2.4%

2017

2.4%

(3.1)%
(3.1)%

(3.1)%

(3.1)%

2016

2017
2015

2017
2017
2016
2016
2016
2015
(0.3)% 2014
2015
(0.3)% 2014
(2.5)%
(0.3)% 2014
(0.3)% 2014
2013
2013

2015
2013

(2.5)%
(2.5)%

2.4%
2.4%

2.4%

5.0%

5.0%
5.0%

5.0%

(2.5)%

2013

Underlying profit before tax1

£1.1m

2017

£1.1m

£1.1m
£1.1m

£1.1m

£2.4m

£2.4m
£2.4m

£2.4m

(£1.5)m

(£1.5)m
(£1.5)m

(£1.5)m

£(0.2)m

£(1.1)m

£(0.2)m

£(0.2)m
£(0.2)m
£(1.1)m
£(1.1)m

2016

2017
2015

2016
2014

2015
2013

2014

2017
2017
2016
2016
2015
2015
2014
2014
2013
2013

£(1.1)m

2013

Underlying EPS1

2017

4.2p

4.2p

(6.0)p

2016

2017
2015

2016
2014

2015
2013

2014

2017
2017
2016
2016
2015
2015
2014
2014
2013
2013

(6.0)p
(6.0)p

(6.0)p

(2.1)p

(2.1)p
(2.1)p

(3.8)p

(2.1)p
(3.8)p
(3.8)p

4.2p
4.2p

4.2p

10.8p

10.8p
10.8p

10.8p

Reconciliation of profit/(loss) before tax to underlying profit/
(loss) before tax

Profit/(loss) before tax

Defined benefit pension scheme  
administration costs

Reorganisation costs

Profit on sale of surplus property

Net financing expense/(income) on  
pension scheme balances

Underlying profit/(loss) before tax

Non-underlying items merit separate 
presentation in the Consolidated 
income statement to allow a better 
understanding of the Group’s 
financial performance, by facilitating 
comparisons with prior periods and 
assessments of trends in financial 
performance. Pension administration 
costs, restructuring costs, and profit 
on disposal of surplus property are 
considered non-underlying items as 
they are not representative of the 
core trading activities of the Group 
and are not included in the underlying 
profit before tax measure reviewed 
by key stakeholders.

Restructuring
The Group undertook a number of 
restructuring actions during the year 
with significant changes made to the 
senior management teams across 
the Group including the appointment 
of new site management in 
Mississauga, Wijchen, and Singapore 
and the strengthening of the sales 
teams throughout the Group. 
Restructuring costs were also 
incurred in the closure and move of 
the Mississauga facility.

2017
£m

4.3

0.8

0.7

(4.8)

0.1

1.1

2016
£m

(3.1)

0.9

0.8

–

(0.1)

(1.5)

Interest and taxation
Net financing expense was £0.3m 
(2016: £0.2m), which includes a net 
financing expense of £0.1m (2016: 
£0.1m financing income) on pension 
scheme balances. The tax charge on 
underlying profit before tax was 
£0.3m (2016: £0.4m credit), an 
underlying effective rate of 27% 
(2016: 24%). The total tax charge on 
the Group’s profit before tax was 
£1.9m (2016: £0.7m credit).

Sale of Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery (I&TM) division
The sale of the I&TM division 
completed on 1 August 2017. The net 
consideration received by the 
Company, after fees and taxes, was 
£25.9m. A further £1.5m is retained 
within an escrow account, £0.75m of 
which will be released after 12 
months and the balance after 24 
months, subject to any deductions 
arising from valid warranty or 
indemnity claims made by G.D S.p.a 
(a subsidiary of Coesia S.p.a) under 
the Sale Agreement. The Company 
agreed with the Trustees of the 
Molins UK Pension Fund (Fund) to 
make a one-off contribution to the 
Fund of 10% of the net cash proceeds 
of £2.4m, which reduced the net 
consideration to £23.5m. 

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(3.8)p

2013

1  From continuing operations

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTFinancial review 
continued

The loss from discontinued 
operations was £0.8m (2016: £1.8m 
profit). In 2017 costs incurred on 
disposal of the I&TM business 
totalled £1.1m and a loss of £0.8m on 
the disposal of net assets was 
recognised. A credit of £1.1m was 
recognised on the recycling of the 
translation reserve. 

Sale of property in Canada
The Group sold its manufacturing 
facility at 6154 Kestrel Road, 
Mississauga, Ontario in December 
2017 for a gross consideration of 
C$11.7m (£6.8m). The profit on the 
sale of the facility was £4.8m. 
The Group spent C$1.7m (£1.0m) to 
adapt the new building to its needs. 
The new facility was leased for 
10 years at an annual cost of C$0.6m.

Dividends
Having considered the trading 
results for 2017, together with the 
opportunities for investment in the 
growth of the Company, the Board 
has decided that it is appropriate not 
to pay a final dividend. No interim 
dividend was paid in 2017. Future 
dividend payments and the 
development of a new dividend policy 
will be considered by the Board in the 
context of 2018 trading performance 
and when the Board believes it is 
prudent to do so.

Cash, treasury and  
funding activities
Net cash at the end of the year was 
£29.4m (2016: £0.8m). Net cash 
outflow from continuing operations 
before reorganisation was £5.4m 
(2016: £2.4m inflow), after an 
increase in working capital of £2.7m 
(2016: £4.4m decrease) and defined 
benefit pension payments of £4.9m 
(2016: £2.0m). Reorganisation 
payments of £0.8m (2016: £0.2m) 
were made in the year. Net taxation 
payments of £0.3m (2016: £0.2m) 
and cash inflows in respect of 
discontinued operations of £4.4m 
(2016: £4.2m). Capital expenditure on 
property, plant and equipment was 
£1.6m (2016: £0.5m) and capitalised 
product development expenditure 
was £0.1m (2016: £0.9m). In 2016 
dividends of £0.5m were paid.

There were no significant changes 
during the year in the financial risks, 
principally currency risks and interest 
rate movements, to which the 
business is exposed and the Group 
treasury policy has remained 
unchanged. The Group does not 
trade in financial instruments and 
enters into derivatives (mainly 
forward foreign exchange contracts) 
solely for the purpose of minimising 
currency exposures on sales or 
purchases in other than the 
functional currencies of its 
various operations. 

Pension schemes
The Group is responsible for defined 
benefit pension schemes in the UK 
and the USA, in which there are no 
active members. The Company is 
responsible for the payment of a 
statutory levy to the Pension 
Protection Fund, in relation to the 
fund. The quantum of this levy is 
dependent on a number of factors, 
including a specific method of 
calculating a pension deficit for this 
purpose and a credit assessment of 
the Company, the methodology for 
which is also specific for this purpose.

These schemes are accounted for in 
accordance with IAS 19 Employee 
benefits. A formal valuation of the UK 
defined benefit pension scheme 
(Fund) was carried out as at 30 June 
2015. The principal terms of the 
deficit funding agreement between 
the Company and the Fund’s Trustees, 
which is effective until 31 August 
2029, but, is subject to reassessment 
every 3 years as follows: 

 ›

 › the Company will continue to pay a 
sum of £1.8m per annum to the 
Fund (increasing at 2.1 per cent.  
per annum) in deficit recovery 
payments;
if underlying operating profit 
(operating profit before non-
underlying items) in any year is in 
excess of £5.5m, the Company will 
pay to the Fund an amount of 33% 
of the difference between the 
annual underlying operating profit 
and £5.5m, subject to a cap on 
underlying operating profit of 
£10.0m for the purpose of 
calculating this payment; this part 
of the agreement will fall away in 
2021 if the funding deficit is above 
certain levels; and 

 › payments of dividends by Mpac 

Group plc will not exceed the value 
of payments being made to the 
Fund in any one year.

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The IAS 19 valuation of the UK 
scheme’s assets and liabilities was 
undertaken as at 31 December 2017 
and was based on the information 
used for the funding valuation work 
as at 30 June 2015, updated to 
reflect both conditions at the 2017 
year end and the specific 
requirements of IAS 19. The smaller 
USA defined benefit schemes were 
valued as at 31 December 2017, using 
actuarial data as of 1 January 2017, 
updated for conditions existing at the 
year end. Under IAS 19 the Group has 
elected to recognise all actuarial 
gains and losses outside of the 
income statement.

The IAS 19 valuation of the UK 
scheme resulted in a net surplus at 
the end of the year of £17.6m (2016: 
£4.6m). The value of the scheme’s 
assets at 31 December 2017 was 
£414.6m (2016: £401.9m) and the 
value of the scheme’s liabilities was 
£397.0m (2016: £397.3m). The 
scheme’s assets have benefited from 
strong returns in the year which has 
increased the scheme’s surplus. The 
scheme’s obligations fell slightly 
during the year.

The accounting valuations of the USA 
pension schemes showed an 
aggregated net deficit of £6.2m 
(2016: £6.8m) with total assets of 
£16.7m (2016: £17.1m).

The UK scheme was subject to a 
formal triennial actuarial valuation as 
at 30 June 2015, which completed on 
1 August 2017. The funding valuation 
of the Group’s UK defined benefit 
scheme showed a funding level of 
83% of liabilities, which represented 
a deficit of £70.0m (30 June 2012: 
£53.0m) with an estimated recovery 
period of 14 years from 30 June 2015. 
The assumptions underlying the 
assessment of the liabilities reflected 
the goal of the Trustees and 
Company to de-risk the Fund. The 
solvency position of the scheme at 
that date, which reflects the 
scheme’s position if it was wound up, 
showed a funding level of 67%. 
Valuations are extremely sensitive to 
a number of factors outside the 
control of the Group, including 
discount rates. The level of deficit 
funding is currently £1.8m per 
annum, increasing by 2.1% per annum 
with an estimated recovery period of 
14 years from 30 June 2015. In 
addition, 10% of the proceeds of the 
sale of the I&TM division was paid 
into the Fund in 2017. Furthermore 
the Company will make additional 
payments if the annual underlying 
operating profit is between £5.5m 
and £10.0m or dividend payments 
exceed payments to the Fund. The 
deficit recovery plan will be 
reassessed as part of the 30 June 
2018 actuarial valuation, which is 
expected to be completed in the 
second half of 2019.

The aggregate cost of administering 
the defined benefit schemes charged 
to operating profit was £0.8m (2016: 
£0.9m). A net financing expense in 
respect of the schemes was £0.1m 
(2016: £0.1m financing income).

During the year the Company made 
payments to the UK defined benefit 
scheme of £1.8m (2016: £1.8m) in 
respect of the deficit recovery plan. 
The Company paid a one-off amount 
to the Fund of £2.4m, representing 
10% of the net proceeds (after costs 
and taxation) of the sale of the 
Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery division. Payments of 
£0.7m (2016: £0.2m) were made to 
the USA schemes in the year.

Equity
Group equity at 31 December 2017 
was £42.8m (2016: £35.4m). The 
movement arises mainly from the net 
actuarial gains in respect of the 
Group’s defined benefit pension 
schemes of £5.9m, a profit for the 
period of £1.6m, currency translation 
gains on foreign currency net 
investments of £0.6m and translation 
reserve recycling of £1.1m arising as 
a consequence of the sale of the 
I&TM division, all figures are stated 
net of tax where applicable.

Jim Haughey
Group Finance Director 
6 March 2018

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTPrincipal risks and 
uncertainties

The Board regularly considers the main risks that the Group faces and how to mitigate those risks.  
The principal risks and uncertainties to which the business is exposed are summarised as follows.

Risk

Mitigation

Economic and market cycles
The Group is potentially affected by global and local 
economic cycles and changes in a number of industrial 
sectors, including the Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Food 
and Beverage industries. Such potential changes include 
those arising as a consequence of governmental activities, 
such as regulation and taxation. Additionally, the impact of 
the UK leaving the EU on the Group is uncertain.

Loss of trading partners
The Group faces the general risk of trading partners, 
including both customers and suppliers, ceasing to 
operate; the loss of any such partner could have an 
adverse effect on the Group’s operating results and 
financial condition, including potentially affecting the 
viability of a subsidiary company. A number of customers 
operate in countries which may face a higher degree of 
political risk than others.

Large one-off projects
The Group undertakes large, one-off projects for its 
customers each year. Several risks follow from the nature 
of this type of business, including the potential for cost 
over-runs and delays in performing the contract, with a 
consequent impact on cash flows and profits. Also, the 
Group is prone to potentially large fluctuations in business 
levels, as demand can be volatile.

Loss of a key facility
The Group operates a number of sites around the world 
and the loss of any one of them would interrupt a revenue 
stream and could potentially have an adverse effect on 
the Group’s operating results and financial condition.

Exchange rate movements
The majority of the Group’s trading is conducted outside 
of the UK and in currencies other than sterling. 
Consequently, its financial performance is affected by 
fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, particularly as a 
result of changes in the relative values of the US dollar, 
Canadian dollar, euro, and sterling.

IT Security 
The Group holds sensitive data relating to its employees, 
customers and suppliers as well as intellectual property 
and financial data. Should security infringement occur the 
Group risks loss of customers, disruption of normal 
operations, fines and reputational damage.

Customers, suppliers and Group operations are 
geographically diverse and the Group sells a range of 
products and services to a number of industries in all 
parts of the world.

The Group has a diversified base of customers. In certain 
years sales to a customer may be more than 5% of Group 
revenue, although the sales would typically be both 
original equipment and service, and to a number of 
different geographic regions. The Group regularly reviews 
its trading relationships with suppliers with the aim of 
ensuring that alternative sources of supply are available.

The Group utilises good project management practices, 
including regular technical and commercial reviews of its 
major projects. Resource capacity is regularly reviewed, 
alongside reviews of order prospects lists.

Disaster recovery plans are in place for each site.  
IT infrastructures are designed to have minimal inter 
dependence across the Group, thereby not exposing a 
number of facilities to the failure of one central system.

The Group has a wide supply base in different countries 
and monitors the relative values of currencies in making 
purchasing decisions. The Group enters into forward 
foreign exchange contracts to minimise currency 
exposures on sales and purchases in other than the 
functional currencies of its operations.

The Group continually reviews the effectiveness of its IT 
security controls in consultation with external experts  
and invests in industry best practice security software. 
The security arrangements of the Group’s IT assets 
prevent unauthorised access to core IT hardware.  
IT infrastructures are designed to have minimal inter 
dependence across the Group.

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23

Risk

Mitigation

Availability of funding
Following the sale of the Instrumentation & Tobacco 
Machinery division, and the subsequent repayment of the 
Group’s outstanding loan facilities, the Group relinquished 
its borrowing facilities from its principal UK bank. 

Liabilities of the Group sponsored  
defined benefit pension schemes
The Group is responsible for the funding of a defined 
benefit pension scheme in the UK, which pays a levy to the 
Pension Protection Fund of an amount outside the control 
of the Group, as well as three smaller such schemes in the 
USA. Changes in the value of the liabilities of the pension 
schemes, which were valued in aggregate at £419.9m at 
31 December 2017 in accordance with IAS 19, as a 
consequence of changes in interest rates and mortality 
rates, amongst others, and changes in the value of the 
assets of the pension schemes, which were valued in 
aggregate at £431.3m at 31 December 2017, are largely 
outside the control of the Group. The valuation of these 
schemes impact on the value of capital employed in the 
Group and the extent to which, as a matter of law, it has 
available to distributable profits. The Group has 
responsibility for the adequate funding of the pension 
schemes and is currently paying to the UK scheme £1.8m 
per annum in respect of deficit funding following an 
actuarial funding valuation as at 30 June 2015. The UK 
scheme is subject to a full actuarial funding valuation as at 
30 June 2018 and will help inform its funding 
requirements over the subsequent periods.

Litigation
The Group from time to time may be subject to claims 
from third parties in relation to its current and past 
operations, which could result in legal costs and rulings 
against it that may have a material effect on the Group’s 
operating results and financial condition.

The Group is currently in discussions with various UK 
banks to seek the renewal of banking facilities. As at 31 
December 2017, the Group holds net cash balances of 
£29.4m. It is considered that the Group has sufficient 
cash resources to carry on in operational existence for the 
foreseeable future. It is considered that new banking 
facilities will be agreed within the coming months.

The Group and the pension schemes implement liability 
reduction strategies where such opportunities exist and 
the Group maintains regular dialogue with its pension 
advisors on such matters. Regular meetings are held with 
the trustee of the UK pension scheme, to input into their 
asset investment decisions and to apprise the trustee of 
the progress of the Group to help inform them in making 
decisions which may impact the scheme funding 
requirements. However, many factors which impact the 
valuations and funding requirements of the pension 
schemes are outside the control of the Group.

The Group has a comprehensive risk management and 
review process which is aimed at minimising the risk of such 
claims arising as a consequence of its actions. Insurance 
policies are in place to cover some such incidences and 
third-party legal assistance is sought as required.

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23

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTChairman’s report

Phil Moorhouse, Chairman

Day to day management of the 
Company’s businesses is delegated 
to the executive directors and in turn 
to senior members of the leadership 
team in accordance with a clear and 
comprehensive statement of 
delegated authorities. At each 
meeting the Board reviews 
comprehensive financial and trading 
information produced by the 
management team and considers the 
trends in the Company’s businesses 
and their performance against 
strategic objectives and plans. It also 
regularly reviews the work of its 
formally constituted standing 
Committees as described below and 
compliance with the Group’s policies 
and obligations.

This year has seen Jim Haughey join 
the Board as Group Finance Director.

“ As Chairman,  
I welcome the 
opportunity  
to outline the 
activities and 
responsibilities  
of the Board.”

Earlier in this document we have 
explained how the Group has 
performed in the year and how  
it is structured. In this report I explain 
how the Board goes about ensuring it 
performs its duties effectively. 

As an AIM listed company, we 
recognise that applying sound 
governance principles is essential to 
the successful running of the Group. 
The Company is not required to 
comply with the UK Corporate 
Governance Code (“the Code”); 
however we continue to adopt the 
principal provisions of the Code as 
appropriate for the size and nature of 
the Company.

The Board’s activities
The Board met seven times during 
2017 and it is responsible for:

 › Group strategy, business planning, 
budgeting and risk management;
 › monitoring performance against 

budget and other agreed 
objectives;

 › setting the Group’s values and 

standards, including policies on 
employment, health and safety, 
environment and ethics;

 › relationships with shareholders 
and other major stakeholders;
 › determining the financial and 

corporate structure of the Group 
(including financing and dividend 
policy);

 › major investment and divestment 
decisions, and approving material 
contracts; and

 › Group compliance with relevant 

laws and regulations.

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25

Board performance evaluation
The Board carries out a formal 
review each year in respect of its 
performance over the previous year. 
The evaluation is informed by 
detailed questionnaires completed 
by each director.

Relationships with shareholders
The Board recognises the 
importance of maintaining regular 
dialogue with institutional 
shareholders to ensure that the 
Group’s strategy is communicated 
and any concerns can be addressed. 
In addition, all shareholders have the 
opportunity to attend the Annual 
General Meeting where the Group’s 
operations can be discussed with the 
directors. The Chief Executive and 
Group Finance Director make 
themselves available for meetings 
with analysts and representatives of 
the major shareholders on the day of 
the announcement of the preliminary 
results and the half-year results or 
shortly thereafter, and upon request 
at other times of the year, and they 
report accordingly to the Board on 
shareholders’ views. Any shareholder 
wishing to meet with the directors 
should make contact with the 
Secretary. Mr Davies, Mr 
Kitchingman and I are also available 
to attend meetings with major 
shareholders thus enabling 
shareholders to draw our attention to 
any views that they consider need 
special emphasis. We can also be 
contacted through the Secretary.

In furtherance of the principles of 
good corporate governance, the 
Board has appointed Audit, 
Remuneration and Nomination 
Committees, each with formal terms 
of reference, which can be read 
on the Company’s website at  
www.mpac-group.com. The current 
memberships of the Committees 
are shown on page 27. All members 
of the Board and its Committees 
attended all meetings held in 2017.

Reports on the activities of the Audit 
Committee and the Remuneration 
Committee are on pages 28 and 30 
respectively. The Nomination 
Committee, which I chair, is 
responsible for formulating and 
reviewing proposals for the 
appointment of directors and making 
recommendations thereon to the 
Board. It met twice during 2017 and 
intends to meet at least once a year 
to review the structure, size, diversity 
and composition of the Board and its 
Committees (including the balance of 
skills, knowledge and experience and 
the need for succession planning or 
membership of the Board).

The directors attend seminars from 
time to time as appropriate to assist 
with training in their awareness of 
compliance issues facing boards of 
quoted companies. The directors 
have ensured they maintain 
awareness of current issues and 
skills development, through 
membership of professional 
associations where appropriate. 
Details of the service contracts of the 
executive directors are set out in the 
Remuneration report. The non- 
executive directors’ terms of 
engagement are set out in their 
letters of appointment. In each case, 
compensation for loss of office of a 
non-executive director is specifically 
excluded by the letter of 
appointment.

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25

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTChairman’s report  
continued

Internal controls
The Board is responsible for the 
Group’s system of internal controls 
and has established a framework of 
financial and other material controls 
that is periodically reviewed for its 
effectiveness. The Board has 
reviewed the effectiveness of the 
system of internal controls during the 
year ended 31 December 2017 and 
will review controls annually, having 
ensured that appropriate control 
mechanisms and review processes 
are in place.

The Board has taken and will 
continue to take appropriate 
measures to ensure that the chances 
of financial irregularities occurring 
are reduced as far as reasonably 
possible by improving the quality of 
information at all levels in the Group, 
fostering an open environment and 
ensuring that financial analysis is 
rigorously applied. Any system of 
internal control can, however, only 
provide reasonable, but not absolute, 
assurance against material 
misstatement or loss.

The major elements of the system 
of internal control are as follows:

 › major commercial, strategic and 

financial risks are formally 
identified, quantified and assessed 
during the annual budgeting 
exercise and presented to and 
discussed with executive directors, 
after which they are considered by 
the Board;

 › there is a comprehensive system 
of planning, budgeting, reporting 
and monitoring. This includes 
monthly management reporting 
and monitoring of performance 
and forecasts. Monthly reviews are 
embedded in the internal control 
process and cover each principal 
site. Monthly reviews require the 
leadership team to consider, 
among other things, business 
development, financial 
performance against budget and 
forecast, health and safety and 
capital expenditure proposals, 
as well as a review of longer-term 
business development and all 
other aspects of the business. 
They are attended by executive 
directors and other Group 
personnel as appropriate;

 › there is an organisational structure 

with clearly defined lines of 
responsibility and delegation 
of authority;

 › each site is required to comply with 
defined policies, financial controls 
and procedures and authorisation 
levels which are clearly 
communicated;

 › a regular programme of internal 
control reviews and specific 
investigations is carried out by 
Group finance personnel. These 
are followed up during regular 
executive management visits. 
The internal control reviews 
include assessments of 
compliance with Group policies 
and procedures and findings are 
reported to the Audit Committee 
and Board as appropriate;

 › there is a whistle-blower procedure 
of which all employees are made 
aware, to enable concerns to be 
raised either with line management 
or, if appropriate, confidentially 
outside line management;

 › a formal risk management audit is 
regularly carried out by Group 
personnel and external risk 
management consultants, which 
covers physical damage, 
environmental and health 
and safety risks together with 
business continuity issues; and

 › formal reports including 

recommendations are sent to each 
site for action and reported back to 
Group management. Progress 
reports are issued to the Board for 
review and monitoring.

In a year that has seen significant 
change in the Group, I would like to 
thank all employees for their efforts 
in making positive change that will 
contribute towards the future 
success of the business and their 
hard work and contribution to the 
2017 performance.

Phil Moorhouse
Chairman 
6 March 2018

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27

Board of directors

1

2

3

4

5

1. Phil Moorhouse FCCA
Chairman

4. John Davies
Non-Executive Director

Skills and experience: John Davies 
joined the Board on 27 January 2011 
as a non-executive director and is 
Chairman of the Remuneration 
Committee. He is a non-executive 
director of Redde plc and he was 
formerly non-executive Chairman of 
Autologic Holdings plc, Managing 
Director of Lloyds TSB’s Asset 
Finance division, Head of Consumer 
Finance for Standard Chartered Bank 
and Managing Director of United 
Dominions Trust, a subsidiary of 
Lloyds TSB Bank plc.

5. Jim Haughey ACA
Group Finance Director

Skills and experience: Jim Haughey 
joined the Board as Group Finance 
Director on 2 October 2017 from 
Bodycote Plc where he was Group 
Financial Controller. He previously 
held senior financial positions with 
FKI PLC and Bridon group.

Skills and experience: Phil 
Moorhouse joined the Board on 1 
March 2011 as a non-executive 
director and was appointed Chairman 
of the Board on 10 April 2015. He is 
Chairman of the Nomination 
Committee. He is also non-executive 
Chairman of Newcastle Building 
Society. He was formerly Finance 
Director and Managing Director UK of 
Northgate plc.

2. Dr Tony Steels
Chief Executive

Skills and experience: Tony Steels 
joined the Company and was 
appointed to the Board as Chief 
Executive on 6 June 2016. He 
previously held a number of senior 
UK and international management 
positions, most recently at Cytec 
Industries, Umeco plc and Georg 
Fischer AG.

3. Andrew Kitchingman FCA
Non-Executive Director

Skills and experience: Andrew 
Kitchingman joined the Board on 11 
May 2016 as a non-executive director 
and is Chairman of the Audit 
Committee. He is a non-executive 
director of Lon-Pro Holdings plc 
and of Incommunities Group Limited, 
and is also a director of The Cathedral 
Choir School Ripon Limited. 
Previously he held senior corporate 
finance positions with a number of 
firms, including KPMG, Hill Samuel, 
Albert E Sharp, Brewin Dolphin and 
WH Ireland.

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27

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTAudit committee report

Andrew Kitchingman, Chairman of the Audit Committee

The Audit Committee assists the 
Board in the discharge of its duties 
concerning the announcement of 
results, the Annual Report and 
Accounts and the maintenance of 
proper internal controls. It reviews 
the scope and planning, as well as the 
audit and the auditors’ findings and 
considers Group accounting policies 
and the compliance of those policies 
with applicable legal and accounting 
standards.

The Audit Committee also considers 
the independence of the external 
auditors and has developed policies 
relating to the employment of former 
employees of the auditors and the 
engagement of the auditors, or 
advisors related to the auditors, 
on non-audit work. These policies, 
which have been adopted formally 
by the Board, require, inter alia, the 
Committee’s consent to material 
engagements or any employment 
and appropriate confirmations from 
the auditors. The Committee 
considers annually how the internal 
audit function operates in the Group, 
including its terms of reference 
and whether this gives sufficient 
assurance that the business and 
controls of the Group are adequately 
reviewed. The Committee also 
approves the internal audit work plan 
each year. This function is part of the 
Group finance department and its 
senior member reports to the 
Committee at each meeting on its 
activities and has direct access to 
me as required at all times.

“ In my capacity as 
Chairman of the 
Audit Committee,  
I report on the 
responsibilities  
of the Audit 
Committee and  
its activities  
during the year.”

As Chairman of the Audit Committee 
I am pleased to present the 2017 
Audit Committee Report. 

The Committee’s members are the 
non-executive directors, whose 
biographies are set out on page 27, all 
members of the Committee at the 
time of each meeting attended each 
of the four Committee meetings held 
in the year. The Chief Executive, 
Group Finance Director, Secretary, 
senior member of the internal audit 
function and representatives of the 
external auditors (when half-year 
accounts, year-end accounts or 
external audit plan proposals are to 
be considered) are invited to attend 
all or part of each meeting. Each of 
them has confidential access to me 
at other times as required.

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29

Relationship with 
the Auditors
During the year under review 
KPMG LLP provided tax advice 
to the Company and some of its 
principal subsidiaries. The Board 
has considered the effect on 
independence of the auditors 
and the objective criteria on 
which any decisions to appoint 
KPMG LLP should be made. It was 
concluded that in the circumstances 
their appointment as tax advisor 
was the most cost-effective means 
of securing appropriate advice 
without a serious risk of affecting 
the independence of the auditors. 
KPMG LLP have confirmed that 
they do not consider their 
independence to be affected.

The Board has developed policies 
to safeguard the independence of 
the auditors based upon:

 ›

internal KPMG LLP processes to 
prevent information being shared 
between teams except where it is 

appropriate and a periodic rotation 
of senior audit staff in accordance 
with KPMG LLP internal policies;

 › separate consideration of each 
category or major item of work, 
including the cost-effectiveness of 
any proposed work and the 
suitability of competing advisors;
 › consideration of the total level of 
fees payable to KPMG LLP and 
its associated entities; and
 › periodic rotation of the lead 
audit partner; this was last 
effected during 2013, when 
Peter Selvey was appointed 
Senior Statutory Auditor.

Auditors’ appointment
The Committee evaluated and 
was satisfied with the work of the 
auditors, KPMG LLP, and therefore 
recommended to the Board that 
they should be re-appointed for 
the 2018 audit. A resolution for 
the re-appointment of KPMG LLP 
as auditors of the Company is to 
be proposed at the forthcoming 

Annual General Meeting to be held 
on 19 April 2018.

Audit Tender
The Committee noted that KPMG 
LLP had been appointed as auditors 
of the Group for many years, and that 
the Senior Statutory Auditor, Peter 
Selvey, was under KPMG’s internal 
policy of rotating audit partners 
every five years, due to change as 
Senior Statutory Auditor. With this in 
mind the Committee intends during 
2018 to hold a competitive tender for 
external audit services.

Activities of the Audit Committee 
during the year
A summary of the Committee’s 
principal activities in 2017 is set 
out below.

Andrew Kitchingman
Chairman of the Audit Committee  
6 March 2018

Month

February

Principal activities

Review of financial reporting, including material judgements and estimates, 
goodwill impairment review assumptions, going concern assumptions, draft 
Annual Report and Accounts 2016, governance reports, draft preliminary 
results announcement, representation letter to the external auditors and the 
audit report.

Review of internal controls and risk management processes and environment.

Consideration of the external auditors’ activities, effectiveness, objectivity 
and independence, and consideration of whether to recommend the  
re-appointment of KPMG LLP as external auditors.

April

Approval of the internal audit work plan for the year.

August

Update on the implementation of the business’ financial performance 
improvement observations as recommended by the external auditors.

Consideration of the effectiveness of the external audit process.

Review of financial reporting, including consideration of the going concern 
assumptions, the draft half-year announcement and the external auditors’ 
review report of the half-year condensed set of financial statements.

November

Review and approval of the external audit plan for 2017 financial reporting.

Consideration and agreement of the Audit Committee checklist.

Review of financial controls and accounting policies.

Review of internal controls and risk management processes and environment.

Consideration of and approval of external audit fee quotation for the 2017 
financial reporting.

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29

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTRemuneration  
committee report

John Davies, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee

In reaching its decisions on policy 
and specific remuneration packages, 
incentive arrangements and targets, 
the Committee obtains professional 
advice, when necessary, from 
professional advisors on the salary, 
benefits and incentive arrangements 
for executive directors. It has also 
taken advice from Willis Towers 
Watson on pension arrangements 
(a separate team in Willis Towers 
Watson provides actuarial services 
to the trustee of the Molins UK 
Pension Fund).

“ On behalf of the 
Board I am pleased 
to present the 
Remuneration 
Committee’s report 
for the year ended  
31 December 2017.”

The report is presented in three 
sections; my introductory statement, 
the Remuneration report and the 
forward-looking Remuneration policy.

The Remuneration report, on pages 
31 to 32, details the amounts earned 
by the directors in respect of the 
period to 31 December 2017 and is 
subject to an advisory shareholder 
vote. The Remuneration policy, on 
pages 33 to 37, sets out the policy 
which was approved by shareholders 
at the Annual General Meeting held 
on 20 April 2017. 

The Remuneration Committee, 
which consists of the non-executive 
directors, deals with all aspects of 
the remuneration of the executive 
directors and certain other senior 
managers. The Chief Executive, 
Group Finance Director and 
Secretary are invited to attend all or 
parts of each Committee meeting 
but are not in attendance when 
the subject matter covers topics 
pertaining to their remuneration. 
The Committee meets on a regular 
basis, usually three times a year 
and additionally if required. It met 
two times in 2017.

During the year, the Committee 
undertook a review of the 
Remuneration policy to satisfy itself 
that the policy still supports the 
strategic objectives of the Company. 
There have been no changes to the 
Remuneration policy in the year.

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31

Remuneration report
Directors’ total remuneration
The remuneration of the executive directors for the years 2017 and 2016 is made up as follows:

Executive directors’ remuneration as a single figure

2017

D J Cowen  
(resigned 1 September 2017)

T Steels

J R Haughey  
(appointed 2 October 2017)

2016

D J Cowen 

T Steels  
(appointed 6 June 2016)

R C Hunter  
(resigned 6 June 2016)

Salary 
£000

All taxable 
benefitsa
£000

Termination 
paymentsb
£000

Short-term 
incentive
schemec
£000

Deferred
share pland
£000

Pensione
£000

Total 
£000

228

232

44

Salary 
£000

215

130

105

23

21

3

94

–

–

–

64

11

–

90

–

60

23

7

All taxable 
benefitsa
£000

Termination 
paymentsb
£000

Short-term 
incentive
schemec
£000

Deferred
share pland
£000

Pensione
£000

22

 9

15

–

–

91

–

46

–

–

–

–

58

10

19

405

430

65

Total 
£000

295

195

230

a  Taxable benefits include:
  Mr Cowen – car allowance payments, private medical cover and income replacement insurance and life assurance premiums; 
  Dr Steels – car allowance payments, income replacement insurance and private medical cover;
  Mr Haughey – car allowance payments, income replacement insurance and private medical cover;
  Mr Hunter – provision of a company car, private fuel, private medical cover, income replacement insurance and life assurance premiums.
b  Mr Cowen resigned as a director of the Company on 1 September 2017 and as an employee on 30 September 2017. The termination payment 

represents pay in lieu of notice and compensation for loss of employment, and reflects the principle of mitigation;

  Mr Hunter resigned as a director of the Company on 6 June 2016 and as an employee on 7 July 2016. The termination payment represents 

pay in lieu of notice and compensation for loss of employment, and reflects the principle of mitigation.

c  The performance criteria for the Short-term incentive scheme is described in the Remuneration policy on page 33.
d  The performance criteria for the Deferred share plan is described in the Remuneration policy on page 33. The amounts represent the values 
of the awards made in the form of conditional grants which are exercisable no earlier than three years from the date of grant. The share price 
at the date of grant in 2017 was 79.0p.

e  The values in respect of Mr Cowen and Mr Hunter are the amounts paid to each of them in lieu of membership of a pension scheme.  
The value in respect of Dr Steels and Mr Haughey is the amounts contributed by the Company into the Company’s Personal Pension  
Plan on their accounts. 

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31

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTRemuneration committee report 
continued

The remuneration of the non-executive directors for the years 2017 and 2016 is made up as follows:

Non-executive directors’ remuneration as a single figure

P J Moorhouse

J L Davies 

A Kitchingman
(appointed 11 May 2016) 

2017

All taxable 
benefits 
£000

–

–

–

Fees 
£000

75

50

45

Total 
£000

75

50

45

2016

All taxable 
benefits 
£000

–

–

–

Fees 
£000

75

50

29

Total 
£000

75

50

29

Directors’ interests in shares
The beneficial interests of directors holding office at 31 December 2017 and persons connected with them in the 
ordinary shares of the Company (excluding share options) were as follows:

P J Moorhouse

A Kitchingman

Held at  
1 January 
2017

20,000

Acquired in 
the year

Held at  
31 December 
2017

–

20,000

–

6,451

6,451

D J Cowen resigned during the year, as at 1 January 2017 Mr Cowen held 123,519 shares in the company.

No director holds, or held at any time during the year, a beneficial interest in the Company’s preference shares.  
There were no changes in the directors’ interests in shares between 31 December 2017 and 6 March 2018.

Incentive scheme – Deferred share plan
Details of conditional grants of Mpac Group plc ordinary shares under the Company’s Deferred share plan yet to vest  
for each director who held office during the year and who is eligible to participate in the plan are as follows:

T Steels

Date of award

Basis of 
award 
(% of salary)

Number of 
shares

Face value at 
grant 
(£000)

8 June 2017

38.5%

113,924

90,000

Awards are made following the achievement of personal objectives linked to long-term strategic initiatives.  
The earliest date that awards can vest is three years from the date of award. No awards were made to the executive 
directors in 2016.

In 2017 Mr Cowen exercised grants that were awarded in 2014. The value of this exercise to Mr Cowen was £49,980.

In 2016 Mr Cowen exercised grants that were awarded in 2013. The value of this exercise to Mr Cowen was £27,727. 
Awards made to Mr Hunter in 2014, with a face value at the time of the grants were made of £167,000, lapsed in 2016  
as a consequence of his leaving the employment of the Company. Rather than exercise awards that were made to  
Mr Hunter in 2013, the Company chose instead to pay the cash equivalent value of the deferred shares, of £31,297,  
and the award duly lapsed. 

Payments to past directors
There were no payments made to past directors during the period in respect of services provided to the Company 
after their appointment was terminated, except that Mr Cowen received remuneration for the period from the date 
he ceased to be a director, on 1 September 2017 until the date his employment ceased on 30 September 2017.

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33

Remuneration policy
This part of the Remuneration Committee’s report sets out the Remuneration policy which was determined by the 
Company’s Remuneration Committee and was subject to a binding vote at the 2016 Annual General Meeting on 20 April 
2017, which is effective for a period of up to three years. It is not subject to audit. The policy was subject to a binding 
vote at the Annual General Meeting on 20 April 2017, and it will be effective until no later than 20 April 2020.

The Remuneration policy is designed to ensure that the remuneration packages offered, and the terms of the 
contracts of service, are competitive and are designed to attract, retain and motivate executive directors of the right 
calibre. To achieve these goals, the Remuneration Committee’s policy is to establish fixed salary at around half of the 
total obtainable in the case of excellent performance, with recognition and reward for achieving performance targets 
annually and growth in the long-term.

Remuneration packages
The main components of the package for each executive director are:

i. Basic salary
Basic salary is determined by taking into account the performance of the individual and information on the rates 
of salary for similar jobs in companies of comparable size and complexity in a range of engineering and other 
technology industries.

ii. Incentive schemes
The executive directors participate in incentive schemes in which the aggregated minimum bonus payable is nil and the 
maximum bonus payable is 120% of relevant salaries, of which a maximum of 70% of salary is payable in cash (awarded 
under the rules of the Short-term incentive scheme) and a maximum of 50% of salary is payable in deferred shares 
(currently awarded as conditional grants in Mpac Group plc ordinary shares under the Company’s Deferred share plan). 
The targets against which performance is judged are primarily the Group’s key financial performance indicators in 
respect of the Short-term incentive scheme, set annually by the Remuneration Committee, and personal objectives 
linked directly to long-term strategic initiatives to enhance shareholder value in respect of the Deferred share plan. 
The directors’ personal objectives are commercially sensitive and therefore remain, and are expected to continue to 
remain, confidential to the Company. In some years the targets for the Short-term incentive scheme may be varied to 
reflect particular objectives determined by the Remuneration Committee. The Remuneration Committee took advice 
on good practice in this area in 2009 from Willis Towers Watson and will conduct a further review in 2018.

The main terms of the Deferred share plan are that an award is made, subject to the achievement of personal objectives, 
in the form of a nil cost option, which stipulates the number of deferred shares being awarded. Awards in each year are 
usually determined shortly after publication of the Company’s preliminary results announcement and, provided the 
director is still in the employment of the Company on the third anniversary of the award being made, the stated number 
of shares will be granted to the director at any time requested by the director from the third anniversary to, normally, the 
fourth anniversary. Alternatively, in exceptional circumstances and at the Company’s absolute discretion, the Company 
may make a cash payment of a sum equivalent to the value of the shares that would otherwise have been granted. In 
certain circumstances, for example retirement, the director may exercise a proportion of an award before the third year 
anniversary of the conditional grant.

iii. Pensions
Directors may choose to join the Mpac Group Personal Pension Plan, which is a defined contribution scheme. 
Additionally, life assurance and income protection policies are put in place for the executive directors.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTRemuneration committee report 
continued

Contracts of service
The Company’s policy is to offer contracts of employment that attract, motivate and retain skilled employees who are 
incentivised to deliver the Company’s strategy. The current service contracts were concluded with Dr Steels on 6 June 
2016 and with Mr Haughey on 2 October 2017. These service contracts are terminable on notice of one year given by the 
Company and six months given by the director. In the event of termination by the Company, the Company has the option 
of making a payment of liquidated damages equivalent to the value of 12 months’ salary, or the balance of the period to 
the date of expiry if less, or of negotiating appropriate compensation reflecting the principle of mitigation. In the event 
of a change of control in the Company, if the Company terminates Dr Steels’ contract within six months of the change of 
control, or if Dr Steels terminates the contract within six months of the change of control, the Company will be obliged to 
pay liquidated damages equivalent to the value of 12 months’ salary. The purpose of the change of control clause, which 
is reviewed regularly, is that the contracts should provide reasonable and appropriate security to the director concerned 
and to the Company.

Any commitment contained within the current directors’ service contracts, or a current employee’s contract of 
employment who is subsequently promoted to the role of director, will be honoured even where it may be inconsistent 
with the Company’s Remuneration policy.

Letters of appointment
The non-executive directors are not issued with a separate service contract on appointment. The terms of their 
appointment are set out in their letter of appointment. The Company does not make termination payments to non-
executive directors in the event a non-executive director’s appointment is terminated by the Company.

Recruitment
The Committee reserves the right to make payments outside the Remuneration policy in exceptional circumstances. 
The Committee would only use this right where it believes that this is in the best interests of the Company and when it 
would be disproportionate to seek the specific approval of the shareholders in a general meeting.

When hiring a new executive director, the Committee will use the Remuneration policy to determine the executive 
director’s remuneration package. To facilitate the hiring of candidates of the appropriate calibre to implement the 
Group’s strategy, the Committee may include any other remuneration component or award not explicitly referred to 
in this Remuneration policy sufficient to attract the right candidate. In determining the appropriate remuneration the 
Committee will take into consideration all relevant factors (including the quantum and nature of the remuneration) to 
ensure the arrangements are in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders.

The Committee may buy-out incentive arrangements forfeited on leaving a previous employer after taking account of 
relevant factors including the form of the award, any performance conditions attached to the award and when they 
would have vested. The Committee may consider other components for structuring the buy-out including cash or share 
awards where there is a commercial rationale for this.

Where the recruitment requires the individual to relocate appropriate relocation costs may be offered.

Recruitment awards will normally be liable to forfeiture or clawback if the executive director leaves the Company 
within the first two years of their employment. Any such awards will be linked to the achievement of appropriate and 
challenging performance measures and will be forfeited if performance or continued employment conditions are 
not met.

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35

Termination
The Committee reserves the right to make additional liquidated damages payments outside the terms of the directors’ 
service contracts where such payments are made in good faith in order to discharge an existing legal obligation (or by 
way of damages for breach of such an obligation) or by way of settlement or compromise of any claim arising in 
connection with the termination of a director’s office or employment.

Non-executive directors
The fees of non-executive directors are determined by the Board based upon comparable market levels. The non-
executive directors do not participate in the Company’s incentive schemes and nor do they receive any benefits or 
pension contributions.

Future Remuneration policy table
The following table provides a summary of the key components of the remuneration package for directors:

Salary

Purpose and link to strategy

This is a fixed element of the executive directors’ remuneration and is intended 
to be competitive and attract, retain and motivate.

Operation

Opportunity

Takes into account the performance of the individual and information on the 
rates of salary for similar jobs in companies of comparable size and complexity 
in a range of engineering and technology industries.

Salary is normally reviewed annually. Ordinarily, salary increases will be in line 
with increases awarded to other employees within the Group. However, 
increases may be made above this level at the Remuneration Committee’s 
discretion to take account of individual circumstances such as: 

increase in scope and responsibility;

 ›
 › to reflect the individual’s development and performance in the role; and
 › alignment to market level.

Performance metrics

Not applicable, although individual performance is one of the considerations in 
determining the level of salary.

Benefits

Purpose and link to strategy

The benefits provided to the executive directors are intended to be competitive 
and attract and retain the right calibre of candidate.

Operation

Opportunity

Benefits are paid to the executive directors in line with market practice.

Benefits are set at a level which the Remuneration Committee considers: 

 › are appropriately positioned against comparable roles in companies of a 

similar size and complexity in the relevant market; and

 › provide a sufficient level of benefit based upon the role and individual 

circumstances.

Performance metrics

Not applicable.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTRemuneration committee report 
continued

Short-term incentive scheme

Purpose and link to strategy

Operation

The Short-term incentive scheme is intended to reward executive directors 
for the performance of the Group in the financial year.

The Remuneration Committee reviews the financial performance of the 
Group following the end of each financial year and determines the payments 
to be made.

Opportunity

Maximum of 70% of salary.

Performance metrics

The targets against which performance is judged are primarily the Group’s key 
performance metrics in each financial year set annually by the Remuneration 
Committee. In some years the targets for the Short-term incentive scheme may 
be varied to reflect particular objectives determined by the Remuneration 
Committee. The Remuneration Committee retains the ability to adjust and/or set 
different performance measures if events occur (such as a change in strategy, a 
material acquisition/divestment of a Group business, a change in prevailing 
market conditions, or a change in regulation which affects the Group) which 
cause the Remuneration Committee to determine that the measures are no 
longer appropriate and that amendment is required so that they achieve their 
original purpose.

Deferred share plan

Purpose and link to strategy

Operation

The Deferred share plan is intended to reward executive directors for their 
contribution in respect of the longer-term development of the Group.

The Remuneration Committee assesses the achievements of each director 
in respect of targets set annually and determines the award to be made, 
typically shortly after the Company’s preliminary results announcement.

Opportunity

Maximum of 50% of salary, valued at the date of award of the conditional grant.

Performance metrics

The targets against which performance is judged are specific objectives 
personal to each director aimed at contributing towards the longer-term 
development of the Group. The Remuneration Committee retains the ability to 
adjust and/or set different performance measures if events occur (such as a 
change in strategy, a material acquisition/divestment of a Group business, 
a change in prevailing market conditions, or a change in regulation which 
affects one or other of the Group businesses) which cause the Remuneration 
Committee to determine that the measures are no longer appropriate and 
that amendment is required so that they achieve their original purpose.

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Pension

Purpose and link to strategy

Operation

Opportunity

The payment of a pension benefit is intended to form an integral part of an 
executive director’s remuneration package that is competitive and attracts, 
retains and motivates the director.

Directors may join the Mpac Group Personal Pension Plan, or alternatively, in lieu of 
payments to the pension scheme, the Company may pay additional emoluments.

Any percentage increase in pension contributions will not exceed the percentage 
increase in salary.

Performance metrics

Not applicable.

Non-executive directors’ fees

Purpose and link to strategy

To attract and retain non-executive directors of the right calibre.

Operation

The fees of non-executive directors are determined by the Board based upon 
comparable market levels. The non-executive directors do not participate in 
the Company’s incentive schemes and nor do they receive any benefits or 
pension contributions.

Statement of consideration of employment conditions elsewhere in the Company
The Company applies the same key principles to setting remuneration for its employees as those applied to the 
directors’ remuneration. In setting salaries and benefits each business considers the need to retain and incentivise  
key employees and the impact such policy has on the continued success of the Company.

By order of the Board

John Davies
Chairman of the Remuneration Committee  
6 March 2018

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTDirectors’ report

Business review
The directors’ business review is set out as part of the 
Strategic report with the results of the Group being set 
out in the Consolidated income statement on page 46 and 
in its related notes.

Going concern
The Group’s activities together with the factors likely to 
affect its future development, performance and position 
are described within the Strategic report on pages 1 to 23. 
The directors have considered the trading outlook of the 
Group, its financial position, including its cash resources 
and access to borrowings, as set out in note 20 to the 
accounts on page 69, and its continuing obligations, 
including to its defined benefit pension schemes, details 
of which are set out in note 24 to the accounts on pages 
71 to 76. Having made due enquiries the directors have 
a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate 
resources to continue in operational existence for the 
foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to 
adopt the going concern basis in preparing the 
financial statements.

Dividends
Having considered the trading results for 2017, together 
with the opportunities for investment in the growth of the 
Company, the Board has decided that it is appropriate not 
to pay a final dividend. No interim dividend was paid in 
2017. Future dividend payments and the development of a 
new dividend policy will be considered by the Board in the 
context of 2018 trading performance and when the Board 
believes it is prudent to do so.

Dividends on the 6% preference shares are due for 
payment on 30 June and 31 December in each year  
and in 2017 amounted to £0.1m (2016: £0.1m).

Research and development
Group policy is to retain and enhance its market position 
through the design and development of specialist 
machinery, instrumentation and services. To achieve this 
objective, engineering and product development facilities 
are maintained in the UK and overseas. Research and 
development expenditure for the continuing Group 
incurred in 2017, net of third-party income, amounted to 
£0.6m (2016: £1.2m), of which £0.5m (2016: £0.3m) was 
charged to the Consolidated income statement and £0.1m 
(2016: £0.9m) was capitalised and included in 
development costs.

Directors and directors’ interests
The names of the directors of the Company at the  
date of this report are shown on page 27.

Directors’ interests in the Company’s shares as at 
31 December 2017 are shown on page 32 in the 
Remuneration report. There are no shareholding 
requirements for directors.

Substantial shareholdings
At 6 March 2018, the Company had been notified, in 
accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies, of the 
following interests in the issued ordinary share capital 
of the Company:

Schroder Investment 
Management Limited

River and Mercantile Asset 
Management LLP

Mr G V L Oury

Number of 
ordinary 
shares

% of issued 
ordinary 
shares

4,600,011

22.8

1,644,026

1,095,000

8.2

5.4

Share capital
Authority for the purchase of up to 3,000,000 own 
ordinary shares for cancellation was granted at the 2017 
Annual General Meeting and this authority expires on 
19 April 2018. The directors consider it appropriate to 
seek further authority from the shareholders at the 
forthcoming Annual General Meeting for the Company 
to purchase its own shares.

Resolution 13, which will be proposed as a special 
resolution, will seek the necessary authority to enable the 
Company to purchase for cancellation ordinary shares in 
the market for a period of up to 12 months from the date 
of the meeting, upon the terms set out in the resolution, 
up to a maximum number of 3,000,000 ordinary shares 
representing approximately 15% of the issued ordinary 
share capital at the date of the notice convening the 
Annual General Meeting.

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39

EES Trustees International Limited holds shares as 
trustee in connection with the Company’s long-term 
incentive arrangements for the benefit of the Group’s 
employees; at 6 March 2018 it held 347,016 shares. 
The trustee has agreed to waive all dividends and 
not to exercise voting rights in respect of shares 
representing 1.7% of the issued share capital.

Information about the Company’s share capital is given 
in note 25 to the accounts on page 77.

Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting will take place on  
19 April 2018. Notice of the meeting can be found 
on pages 90 to 97.

Social, community and human rights
Employment policies
The Group is committed to developing its employment 
policies in line with best practice and providing equal 
opportunities for all, irrespective of gender, age, marital 
status, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religious belief 
or disability. Full and fair consideration is given to 
applications for employment from people with disabilities 
having regard to their aptitudes and abilities.

Every reasonable effort is made to support those who 
become disabled, either in the same job or, if this is not 
practicable, in suitable alternative work.

Gender diversity
The information contained within the table below relates 
to employees of Mpac Group plc only and does not include 
employees of the Company’s overseas subsidiaries.

Directors 

Senior managers

Total employees

Men  
(%)

100

75

81

Women  
(%)

– 

25

19

Employee involvement
Emphasis is placed on training, effective communication 
and the involvement of employees in the development of 
the business. Information is regularly provided on the 
progress of the Group through local review meetings, 
briefings and consultative bodies. Involvement in the 
achievements of the business is encouraged through 
other means appropriate to each location.

Ethics policy
The Group’s Ethics policy was reviewed, updated and 
reissued in April 2014. The Ethics policy, which is 
distributed to every Group employee and is available on 
the Group’s website at www.mpac-group.com, sets out 
the values which Mpac Group plc seeks to encourage and 
certain principles governing the way it does business.

Environmental policy
The Group is committed not only to compliance with 
environmental legislation but also to the progressive 
introduction of appropriate measures to limit the 
adverse effects of its operations upon the environment. 
In particular, efforts are made to minimise waste 
arising from operations, to recycle materials wherever 
possible and to consider alternative methods of design 
or operation.

The Group aims both to reduce its costs by these means 
and to promote good practice in use of resources at 
sustainable levels.

Annual quantity of emissions
Mpac Group plc has chosen to report emissions for the 
Group on a voluntary basis as set out below. Emissions  
are measured as tonnes of CO2 equivalent resulting 
directly from the Group’s purchase of electricity and the 
combustion of fuel arising from the activities of the Group 
for which it is responsible, and an intensity ratio has also 
been included.

Purchased electricity 

Combustion of fuel

Total

Emissions 
(tonnes of CO2 
equivalent)

Intensity ratio 
(tonnes of CO2 
equivalent per 
employeea)

530

227

757

2.4

a  Calculated using average number of employees in the year.

The Strategic report on pages 2 to 23 and Directors’ 
report on page 38 to 39 are hereby approved by the Board 
of Directors. 

By Order of the Board

Prism Cosec Limited
6 March 2018

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39

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTStatement of directors’ responsibilities  
in respect of the annual report and the  
financial statements

The directors are responsible for preparing the Annual 
Report and the Group and parent Company financial 
statements in accordance with applicable law 
and regulations. 

Company law requires the directors to prepare Group and 
parent Company financial statements for each financial 
year. As required by the AIM Rules of the London Stock 
Exchange they are required to prepare the Group financial 
statements in accordance with International Financial 
Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU (IFRSs as 
adopted by the EU) and applicable law and have elected to 
prepare the parent Company financial statements on the 
same basis.

Under company law the directors must not approve the 
financial statements unless they are satisfied that they 
give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Group 
and parent Company and of their profit or loss for that 
period. In preparing each of the Group and parent 
Company financial statements, the directors are  
required to: 

 › select suitable accounting policies and then apply 

them consistently; 

 › make judgements and estimates that are reasonable, 

relevant and reliable; 

The directors are responsible for keeping adequate 
accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain 
the parent Company’s transactions and disclose with 
reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of 
the parent Company and enable them to ensure that its 
financial statements comply with the Companies Act 
2006. They are responsible for such internal control as 
they determine is necessary to enable the preparation 
of financial statements that are free from material 
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and have 
general responsibility for taking such steps as are 
reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of 
the Group and to prevent and detect fraud and 
other irregularities. 

Under applicable law and regulations, the directors 
are also responsible for preparing a Strategic Report 
and a Directors’ Report that complies with that law 
and those regulations. 

The directors are responsible for the maintenance 
and integrity of the corporate and financial information 
included on the company’s website. Legislation in the 
UK governing the preparation and dissemination of 
financial statements may differ from legislation in 
other jurisdictions. 

 › state whether they have been prepared in accordance 

By order of the Board

with IFRSs as adopted by the EU; 

 › assess the Group and parent Company’s ability to 

continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, 
matters related to going concern; and 

 › use the going concern basis of accounting unless they 

either intend to liquidate the Group or the parent 
Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic 
alternative but to do so. 

Tony Steels 
Chief Executive  Group Finance Director  
6 March 2018

Jim Haughey

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41

Independent auditor’s report  
to the members of Mpac Group plc  
(formerly Molins PLC)

1. Our opinion is unmodified 
We have audited the financial statements of Mpac Group 
plc (“the Company”) for the year ended 31 December 
2017 which comprise the consolidated income statement, 
the Group and Company statements of comprehensive 
income, the Group and Company statements of changes 
in equity, the Group and Company statements of financial 
position, the Group and Company statements of cash flow 
and the related notes, including the accounting policies on 
pages 52 to 56. 

Basis for opinion 
We conducted our audit in accordance with International 
Standards on Auditing (UK) (“ISAs (UK)”) and applicable 
law. Our responsibilities are described below. We have 
fulfilled our ethical responsibilities under, and are 
independent of the Group in accordance with, UK ethical 
requirements including the FRC Ethical Standard as 
applied to listed entities. We believe that the audit 
evidence we have obtained is a sufficient and appropriate 
basis for our opinion.

In our opinion: 
 › the financial statements give a true and fair view of the 

state of the Group’s and of the parent Company’s affairs 
as at 31 December 2017 and of the Group’s profit for the 
year then ended; 

 › the Group financial statements have been properly 
prepared in accordance with International Financial 
Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union 
(IFRSs as adopted by the EU); 

 › the parent Company financial statements have been 

properly prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted 
by the EU and as applied in accordance with the 
provisions of the Companies Act 2006; and 
 › the financial statements have been prepared 
in accordance with the requirements of the 
Companies Act 2006.

Materiality: 
Group financial 
statements as a whole

Coverage

£150,000 (2016: £150,000)

92% (2016: 99%) of  
Group profit before tax

Risks of material misstatement vs 2016

Recurring risks

Revenue recognition 
– contract accounting 
(Group and parent)

Revenue recognition 
– inclusion of a sale in 
the relevant period 
(Group and parent)

Valuation of pension 
scheme liabilities 
(Group and parent)

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORT 
Independent auditor’s report  
to the members of Mpac Group plc 
continued

2.  Key audit matters: our assessment of risks of material misstatement
Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance in the audit of the 
financial statements and include the most significant assessed risks of material misstatement (whether or not due to 
fraud) identified by us, including those which had the greatest effect on: the overall audit strategy; the allocation of 
resources in the audit; and directing the efforts of the engagement team. These matters were addressed in the context 
of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate 
opinion on these matters. In arriving at our audit opinion above, the key audit matters, in decreasing order of audit 
significance, were as follows (unchanged from 2016):

The risk

Our response

Revenue 
recognition –  
contract 
accounting
(Group - £43.8m; 
2016: £25.7m; 
Parent company 
- £7.5m; 2016: 
£4.5m)

Refer to pages 54 
and 56 
(accounting policy) 
and pages 57 and 
68 (financial 
disclosures).

Subjective estimate
The majority of revenue of the Group is 
derived through the sale of machinery 
and spare parts, recognised either 
through long term contract accounting 
or for non-contract accounting revenue 
on the transfer of risks and rewards.

Contract accounting is considered a key 
audit matter as it requires a high degree 
of estimation and judgement including 
an assessment of the forecast costs to 
complete a contract which drives the 
recognition of revenue and profit 
on contracts.

Inappropriate inclusion of a sale in 
2017 rather than 2018
Whilst there is little judgement required 
in identifying the appropriate 
accounting policy for spare parts, the 
volume of orders close to year end gives 
rise to a risk that revenue may be 
inappropriately recognised policy.

Revenue 
recognition 
– Spare Sales
For both group and 
parent

Refer to page 56 
(accounting policy) 
and pages 57 
(financial 
disclosures).

Our procedures included: 
 › Our sector expertise: Assessing whether the revenue 
recognition methodology applied was consistent with 
accounting standards.

 › Test of details: For a sample of contracts ongoing 

over the year end we inspected the detailed 
contractual terms and costs of progress in 
comparison to the Group’s forecasts to completion. 
 › We also considered any contradictory evidence for 

future forecast costs including the risks and 
estimates within them by obtaining evidence through 
discussions with key management personnel, 
correspondence with customers and delivery 
performance to date to support selected inputs.
 › Historical assumptions: Compared the contract 
forecasts to historic and in year performance to 
assess the historical accuracy of the forecasts for a 
sample of completed contracts in the year. This 
included a specific assessment of whether any 
onerous contract provisions were required.

Our procedures included: 
 › Test of details: Selecting a sample of revenue 

transactions recognised close to the year end and 
agreeing them to proof of delivery or bill and hold 
agreements in order to assess whether the revenue 
has been recognised in the correct period. 

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43

The risk

Our response

Valuation of 
Pension Scheme 
Obligation
(Group - £419.9m; 
2016: £421.2m; 
Parent company - 
£397.0m; 2016: 
£397.3m)

Refer to page 55 
(accounting policy) 
and pages 71-76 
(financial 
disclosures).

Subjective valuation
The Group has used external, 
independent actuaries to value the 
obligations for the UK and US pension 
schemes by projecting the results of 
the latest triennial valuations to 
31 December 2017. Due to the size 
of the pension scheme obligations 
compared to the size of the Group, any 
minor changes in the key assumptions, 
being the discount, inflation and 
mortality rates, may lead to a significant 
impact on the valuation of the schemes 
liabilities and Group’s financial position.

Our procedures included: 
 › Assessing experts credentials: Evaluation of the 

external, independent actuaries to determine whether 
they are competent and independent through 
discussions with the actuary and reading their 
valuation report; 

 › Benchmarking assumptions and Use of actuarial 

specialists: Comparing the key assumptions used in 
the valuations of the pension schemes with the 
support of our own actuarial specialist. This included 
benchmarking the key assumptions used against 
other comparable companies and externally derived 
market data, and critically assessed assumptions if 
they appeared out of line with these benchmarks. 

 › Assessing transparency: We also considered 

whether the disclosures appropriately reflect the 
sensitivity of the obligation to changes in these 
assumptions and are in compliance with the 
requirement of relevant accounting standards. 

Of the Group’s 15 (2016: 15) reporting components, we 
subjected 8 (2016: 7) to full scope audits for group 
purposes. We conducted reviews of financial information 
(including enquiry) at a further one (2016: four non-
significant components) in order to provide further 
coverage over the group’s results.

The components within the scope of our work accounted 
for the percentages illustrated opposite.

For these residual components, we performed analysis at 
an aggregated group level to re-examine our assessment 
that there were no significant risks of material 
misstatement within these.

The component materialities ranged from £75,000 to 
£100,000 (2016: £75,000 to £100,000), having regard to 
the mix of size and risk profile of the Group across the 
components. All work, including the audit of the parent 
company, was performed by the Group team. The Group 
team also performed procedures on the items excluded 
from normalised Group profit before tax.

The Group team visited operations in the UK, Mississauga, 
Canada and Wijchen, Netherlands to perform full scope 
audits for Group purposes for all the reporting 
components subject to audit (unchanged from 2016).

3.  Our application of materiality and an overview of the 

scope of our audit

Reflecting the transition in the Group’s operations during 
the year, materiality for the Group financial statements as a 
whole was maintained at £150,000 (2016: £150,000). This 
was determined with regard to Group profit before tax from 
continuing operations and the profit on sale of surplus 
property of £4.8m and reorganisation costs of £0.7m (as 
disclosed in note 5). Other benchmarks including revenue 
and net assets were also considered when setting 
materiality. Materiality for the prior year was set 
determined with reference to a benchmark of group 
profit before tax, normalised to exclude part of the 
non-underlying items and averaged over a period of 5 years 
due to fluctuations in the business cycle, amounting to a 
profit of £3.2m, of which it represented approximately 5%.

Mpac Group plc is part of a group headed by Mpac Group 
plc. Materiality of £130,000 (2016: £130,000), for this as 
a component has been applied to the audit of the 
company. This is lower than the materiality we would 
otherwise have determined and represents 0.5% of the 
company’s revenue (2016: 0.3%).

We agreed to report to the Audit Committee any 
corrected or uncorrected identified misstatements 
exceeding £7,500 (2016: £7,500), in addition to other 
identified misstatements that warranted reporting on 
qualitative grounds.

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43

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTIndependent auditor’s report  
to the members of Mpac Group plc 
continued

4. We have nothing to report on going concern
We are required to report to you if we have concluded that 
the use of the going concern basis of accounting is 
inappropriate or there is an undisclosed material 
uncertainty that may cast significant doubt over the use 
of that basis for a period of at least twelve months from 
the date of approval of the financial statements. We have 
nothing to report in these respects.

5.  We have nothing to report on the other information  

in the Annual Report

The directors are responsible for the other information 
presented in the Annual Report together with the financial 
statements. Our opinion on the financial statements does 
not cover the other information and, accordingly, we do 
not express an audit opinion or, except as explicitly stated 
below, any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in 
doing so, consider whether, based on our financial 
statements audit work, the information therein is 
materially misstated or inconsistent with the financial 
statements or our audit knowledge. Based solely on that 
work we have not identified material misstatements in the 
other information.

Strategic report and directors’ report 
Based solely on our work on the other information: 

 › we have not identified material misstatements in the 

 ›

 ›

strategic report and the directors’ report; 
in our opinion the information given in those reports 
for the financial year is consistent with the financial 
statements; and 
in our opinion those reports have been prepared in 
accordance with the Companies Act 2006. 

6.  We have nothing to report on the other matters 
on which we are required to report by exception 

Under the Companies Act 2006, we are required to report 
to you if, in our opinion: 

 › adequate accounting records have not been kept by the 
parent Company, or returns adequate for our audit have 
not been received from branches not visited by us; or 

 › the parent Company financial statements are not in 

agreement with the accounting records and returns; or 
 › certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified 

by law are not made; or 

 › we have not received all the information and 

explanations we require for our audit.

We have nothing to report in these respects

7. Respective responsibilities 
Directors’ responsibilities 
As explained more fully in their statement set out on page 
40, the directors are responsible for: the preparation of 
the financial statements including being satisfied that 
they give a true and fair view; such internal control as they 
determine is necessary to enable the preparation of 
financial statements that are free from material 
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; assessing 
the Group and, parent Company’s ability to continue as a 
going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related 
to going concern; and using the going concern basis of 
accounting unless they either intend to liquidate the 
Group or the parent Company or to cease operations, or 
have no realistic alternative but to do so. 

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45

Auditor’s responsibilities 
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about 
whether the financial statements as a whole are free from 
material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and 
to issue our opinion in an auditor’s report. Reasonable 
assurance is a high level of assurance, but does not 
guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with 
ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement 
when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or 
error and are considered material if, individually or in 
aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to 
influence the economic decisions of users taken on the 
basis of the financial statements. 

A fuller description of our responsibilities  
is provided on the FRC’s website at  
www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. 

8.  The purpose of our audit work and to whom  

we owe our responsibilities

This report is made solely to the Company’s members, as 
a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the 
Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been 
undertaken so that we might state to the Company’s 
members those matters we are required to state to them 
in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the 
fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or 
assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company 
and the Company’s members, as a body, for our audit 
work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Peter Selvey (Senior Statutory Auditor)
for and on behalf of KPMG LLP, Statutory Auditor 

Chartered Accountants

Altius House 
One North Fourth Street 
Milton Keynes 
MK9 1NE

6 March 2018

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45

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTConsolidated income statement
for the year ended 31 December 2017

Revenue

Cost of sales

Gross profit

Other income

Distribution expenses

Administrative expenses

Other operating expenses

Operating profit/(loss)

Financial income

Financial expenses

Net financing (expense)/
income

Profit/(loss) before tax

Taxation

Profit/(loss) for the period 
from continuing operations

(Loss)/profit for the period 
from discontinued 
operations

Profit/(loss) for the period

Earnings/(loss) per ordinary 
share

Basic 

Diluted 

Earnings/(loss) per ordinary 
share from continuing 
activities

Basic 

Diluted 

1

2

3

1,4

8

8

9

30

11

11

11

11

Note

Underlying 
£m

2017

Non- 
underlying 
£m

Total 
£m

53.4

(38.9)

Underlying 
£m

41.5

 (30.5)

14.5

4.8

(5.4)

(8.8)

(0.5)

4.6

0.2

(0.5)

(0.3)

4.3

(1.9)

11.0

–

(5.3)

(6.6)

(0.3)

(1.2)

–

(0.3)

(0.3)

(1.5)

0.4

2016

Non- 
underlying 
£m

–

–

–

–

–

(1.7)

–

(1.7)

0.4

(0.3)

0.1

(1.6)

0.3

Total 
£m

41.5

(30.5)

11.0

–

(5.3)

(8.3)

(0.3)

(2.9)

0.4

(0.6)

(0.2)

(3.1)

0.7

53.4

(38.9)

14.5

–

(5.4)

(7.3)

(0.5)

1.3

–

(0.2)

(0.2)

1.1

(0.3)

–

–

–

4.8

–

(1.5)

–

3.3

0.2

(0.3)

(0.1)

3.2

(1.6)

0.8

1.6

2.4

(1.1)

(1.3)

(2.4)

–

0.8

(0.8)

0.8

(0.8)

1.6

–

(1.1)

1.8

0.5

1.8

(0.6)

8.4p

8.4p

12.2p

12.1p

(3.3)p

(3.3)p

(12.3)p

(12.3)p

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47

Statements of comprehensive income
for the year ended 31 December 2017

Profit/(loss) for the period

Other comprehensive income/(expense)

Items that will not be reclassified to profit or loss

Actuarial gains/(losses)

Tax on items that will not be reclassified  
to profit or loss

Items that may be reclassified subsequently  
to profit or loss

Currency translation movements arising on foreign 
currency net investments

Translation reserve recycled on disposal

Effective portion of changes in fair value  
of cash flow hedges

Tax on items that may be reclassified to profit or loss

Other comprehensive income/(expense)  
for the period

Total comprehensive income/(expense)  
for the period

Note

24 

9

Group

Company

2017 
£m

1.6

2016 
£m

(0.6)

2017 
£m

(1.6)

2016 
£m

(0.4)

9.1 

(6.3) 

9.2 

(7.5)

(3.2)

5.9

0.6

(1.1)

0.4

–

(0.1)

5.8

7.4

2.0

(4.3)

3.7

–

0.7

(0.2)

4.2

(0.1)

(0.7)

(3.2)

6.0

2.5

(5.0)

–

–

0.1

–

0.1

6.1

–

–

0.6

(0.1)

0.5

(4.5)

4.5

(4.9)

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47

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTStatements of changes in equity
for the year ended 31 December 2017

Share  
capital 
£m

Share 
premium 
£m

Translation 
reserve  
£m

Balance at 1 January 2016

5.0

26.0

Loss for the period

Other comprehensive 
(expense)/income for 
the period

Total comprehensive 
(expense)/income  
for the period

Dividends to shareholders

Total transactions  
with owners, recorded  
directly in equity

Balance at 31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2017

Profit for the period

Translation reserve recycled 
on disposal

Other comprehensive income 
for the period

Total comprehensive income/ 
(expense) for the period

Total transactions  
with owners, recorded 
directly in equity

Balance at  
31 December 2017

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

5.0

5.0

26.0

26.0

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

5.0

26.0

(1.5)

–

3.7

3.7

–

–

2.2

2.2

–

(1.1)

0.6

(0.5)

–

1.7

Group

Capital 
redemption 
reserve 
£m

3.9

–

–

–

–

–

3.9

3.9

–

–

–

–

–

3.9

Hedging 
reserve  
£m

Retained 
earnings  
£m

(0.7)

–

3.9

(0.6)

Total  
equity 
£m

36.6

(0.6)

0.5

(4.3)

(0.1)

0.5

–

–

(0.2)

(0.2)

–

–

0.4

0.4

–

0.2

(4.9)

(0.5)

(0.5)

(1.5)

(1.5)

1.6

–

5.9

7.5

(0.7)

(0.5)

(0.5)

35.4

35.4

1.6

(1.1)

6.9

7.4

–

–

6.0

42.8

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49

Share  
premium 
£m

Translation 
reserve 
£m

Balance at 1 January 2016

Loss for the period

Other comprehensive 
(expense)/income for 
the period

Total comprehensive 
(expense)/income for the 
period

Dividends to shareholders

Total transactions  
with owners, recorded  
directly in equity

Share 
capital 
£m

5.0

–

–

–

–

–

26.0

–

–

–

–

–

Balance at 31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2017

5.0

5.0

26.0

26.0

Loss for the period

Other comprehensive 
income for the period

Total comprehensive income  
for the period

Total transactions  
with owners, recorded 
directly in equity

Balance at  
31 December 2017

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

5.0

26.0

Company

Capital 
 redemption 
reserve 
£m

3.9

–

–

–

–

–

3.9

3.9

–

–

–

–

3.9

Hedging  
reserve 
£m

Retained  
earnings 
£m

(0.6)

–

30.3

(0.4)

Total  
equity 
£m

64.6

(0.4)

0.5

(5.0)

(4.5)

0.5

–

–

(0.1)

(0.1)

–

0.1

0.1

–

–

(5.4)

(0.5)

(0.5)

24.4

24.4

(1.6)

6.0

4.4

(4.9)

(0.5)

(0.5)

59.2

59.2

(1.6)

6.1

4.5

–

–

28.8

63.7

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

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49

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTStatements of financial position
as at 31 December 2017

Non-current assets

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Investment property

Investments

Other receivables

Employee benefits

Deferred tax assets

Current assets

Inventories

Trade and other receivables

Current tax assets

Cash and cash equivalents

Current liabilities

Bank overdraft

Trade and other payables

Current tax liabilities

Provisions

Net current assets/(liabilities)

Total assets less current liabilities

Non-current liabilities

Interest-bearing loans and borrowings

Employee benefits

Deferred tax liabilities

Net assets

Equity

Issued capital

Share premium

Reserves

Retained earnings

Total equity

Group

Company

Note

2017 
£m

2016 
£m

2017 
£m

 2016 
£m

12

13

14

15

19

24

16

17

19

10

21

21

22

10

23

20

24

16

1

25

0.9

4.0

0.8

–

0.8

17.6

1.7

25.8

2.4

19.9

0.1

30.3

52.7

–

(20.9)

(0.4)

(1.0)

(22.3)

30.4

56.2

(0.9)

(6.2)

(6.3)

(13.4)

42.8

5.0

26.0

5.8

6.0

42.8

15.2

8.5

0.8

–

–

4.6

4.6

33.7

13.0

24.5

0.2

9.0

46.7

(0.3)

(25.9)

(0.4)

(1.7)

(28.3)

18.4

52.1

(7.9)

(6.8)

(2.0)

(16.7)

35.4

5.0

26.0

5.9

(1.5)

35.4

0.2

1.8

0.8

47.4

0.8

17.6

–

68.6

0.2

5.5

0.1

20.7

26.5

11.8

2.9

0.8

50.6

–

4.6

–

70.7

6.2

12.3

–

2.7

21.2

–

–

(24.1)

(22.3)

–

(0.1)

(24.2)

2.3

70.9

(0.9)

–

(6.3)

(7.2)

63.7

5.0

26.0

3.9

28.8

63.7

–

(0.5)

(22.8)

(1.6)

69.1

(7.9)

–

(2.0)

(9.9)

59.2

5.0

26.0

3.8

24.4

59.2

These financial statements were approved by the directors on 6 March 2018 and signed on their behalf by:

Tony Steels 
Director   
Registered number: 124855

Jim Haughey
Director

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51

 
 
Statements of cash flow
for the year ended 31 December 2017

Group

Company

Note

2017 
£m

2016 
 £m

2017 
£m

2016 
£m

12

13

Operating activities

Operating profit/(loss) from continuing operations

Non-underlying items included in operating profit

Amortisation

Depreciation

Profit on sale of property, plant & equipment

Other non-cash items

Pension payments

Working capital movements:

– decrease in inventories

– increase in trade and other receivables

– increase in trade and other payables

– decrease in provisions

Cash flows from continuing operations 
before reorganisation

Cash flows from discontinued operations

30

Reorganisation costs paid

Cash flows from operations

Taxation paid

Cash flows from operating activities

Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment

Capitalised development expenditure

Acquisition of property, plant and equipment

Net proceeds on disposal of discontinued operations

Net cash flow from discontinued operations

Cash flows from investing activities

Financing activities

Interest paid

Purchase of own shares

Net decrease against revolving facilities

Dividends paid

Cash flows from financing activities

Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents at 1 January

Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash held

Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December

12

13

30

25

21

4.6

1.5

0.3

0.6

(4.8)

–

(4.9)

0.7

(6.4)

3.1

(0.1)

(5.4)

4.4

(0.8)

(1.8)

(0.3)

(2.1)

6.8

(0.1)

(1.6)

25.9

(0.3)

30.7

(0.2)

(0.1)

(7.0)

–

(7.3)

21.3

8.7

0.3

30.3

(2.9)

1.7

0.3

0.7

–

0.2

(2.1)

0.8

–

0.3

–

–

(1.8)

0.8

0.1

0.2

–

–

(2.0)

(4.2)

(1.8)

0.7

(3.5)

7.2

–

2.4

4.2

(0.2)

6.4

(0.2)

6.2

0.3

(0.9)

(0.5)

–

(0.9)

(2.0)

(0.3)

–

(5.2)

(0.5)

(6.0)

(1.8)

9.8

0.7

8.7

0.2

(1.8)

9.9

(0.2)

2.9

(2.9)

(0.2)

(0.2)

–

(0.2)

–

–

(0.1)

25.9

(0.3)

25.5

(0.2)

(0.1)

(7.0)

–

(7.3)

18.0

2.7

–

20.7

0.6

(1.2)

3.4

–

0.3

3.3

(0.1)

3.5

(0.1)

3.4

–

(0.1)

(0.1)

–

(0.9)

(1.1)

(0.3)

–

(5.2)

(0.5)

(6.0)

(3.7)

6.4

–

2.7

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51

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTAccounting policies

The significant accounting policies which are set out 
below apply to both the Group and Company financial 
statements, as appropriate.

Basis of accounting
Mpac Group plc (the Company) is a company incorporated 
and domiciled in the UK. The Group financial statements 
consolidate those of the Company and its subsidiaries 
(together referred to as the Group).

Both the Company financial statements and the Group 
financial statements have been prepared and approved 
by the directors in accordance with International 
Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU 
(Adopted IFRSs).

The financial statements have been prepared on the 
historical cost basis except that derivative financial 
instruments, principally forward foreign exchange 
contracts, are stated at fair value and non-current assets 
are stated at the lower of previous carrying amount and 
fair value less costs to sell.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity 
with Adopted IFRS requires the directors to make 
judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the 
application of policies and reported amounts of assets, 
liabilities, income and expenses. The estimates and 
assumptions are based on historical experience and other 
factors considered reasonable at the time, but actual 
results may differ from these estimates. Revisions to 
these estimates are made in the period in which they 
are recognised.

The accounting policies, presentation and methods 
of computation applied by the Group and Company 
in these financial statements are the same as those 
applied in the 2016 financial statements.

Non-underlying items and  
alternative performance measures
Non-underlying items are income and expenditure 
that, because of the nature of the item, merit separate 
presentation in the income statement to allow a better 
understanding of the Group’s financial performance 
by facilitating comparisons with prior periods and 
assessments of trends in financial performance.

Non-underlying items may include, but are not limited to, 
the impact on the income statement of the Group’s 
defined benefit pension schemes including administration 
charges and pension interest, significant reorganisation 
costs, profits or losses arising on discontinued 
operations, significant impairments of tangible or 
intangible assets and related taxation. Accordingly 
alternative performance measures, which exclude 
non-underlying items, are presented to aid interpretation 
of performance.

Further analysis of the items included in non-underlying 
items is provided in note 5 to the financial statements.

Recent accounting developments
At the date of this report the following standards and 
interpretations relevant to the Group and Company, which 
have not been applied in this report, were in issue but not 
yet effective:

IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers – the 
standard, which will be adopted for the year ending  
31 December 2018, will supersede IAS 11 Construction 
Contracts and IAS 18 Revenue, which the Group and 
Company currently adhere to. IFRS 15 is a control-based 
model where revenue is recognised when control of an 
asset (goods or services) passes. The criteria, based on a 
five step approach, for determining whether control is 
transferred could potentially result in different patterns of 
revenue recognition than those previously seen under IAS 
11 and IAS 18.

The five steps, as set out in IFRS 15, are as follows:

1. Identify the contract with a customer

2. Identify the performance obligations in the contract

3. Determine the transaction price

4.  Allocate the transaction price to the performance 

obligation in the contract

5.  Recognise revenue when (or as) the entity satisfied 

a performance obligation

For all significant contracts where the outcome of the 
transaction can be assessed reliably the Group and 
Company apply IAS 11 Construction Contracts with 
reference to the assessed stage of completion, based on 
an estimate of labour costs completed at the statement of 
financial position date as a proportion of total expected 
labour costs for the contract. The Company has assessed 
whether revenue on those same contracts can be 
recognised on a similar basis over time using the labour 
cost completion input method and concluded that there is 
not expected to be a material change in the timing of 
revenue recognition.

For revenue relating to other contracts currently recognised 
under IAS 18 Revenue when the significant risks and 
rewards of ownership transfer to the customer, the 
business has assessed whether the transfer of control 
under IFRS 15 will result in the timing of revenue recognition 
being materially different. The Company has concluded that 
there is not expected to be a material change in the timing 
of revenue recognition for the 2017 accounts. 

IFRS 16 Leases – the standard, which will be adopted for 
the year ending 31 December 2019, will supersede IAS 17 
Leases which the Group and Company currently adhere to. 

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53

The expected impact of the adoption of the standard is 
for lessee operating leases currently not recognised on 
the balance sheet to become an on-balance sheet liability 
together with a right-of-use asset. In addition, the 
standard potentially alters the pattern of expense with 
interest and lease payments being charged to the income 
statement and the right-of-use asset being depreciated in 
accordance with IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment.

It is not yet practicable to quantify the effect of IFRS 16 on 
these consolidated financial statements.

IFRS 9 (Financial Instruments) - the standard replaces IAS 
39 Financial Instruments - Recognition and Measurement 
and will be effective for annual periods beginning on or 
after 1 January 2018.

due enquiries the directors have a reasonable expectation 
that the Group has adequate resources to continue in 
operational existence for the foreseeable future.

For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern 
basis in preparing the financial statements.

Basis of consolidation
The Group financial statements comprise the 
consolidated results of the Company and all of its 
subsidiary companies together with the Group’s share 
of the results of its associated companies on an equity 
accounting basis. A separate income statement dealing 
only with the results of the Company has not been 
presented in accordance with section 408 of the 
Companies Act 2006.

From the point of the Group, IFRS 9 has introduced three 
key changes when compared to IAS 39:

 › the classification and measurement of financial assets 

 ›

and financial liabilities;
impairment of financial assets, an introduction of 
Expected Credit Loss (ECL) model; and

 › hedge accounting, which provides for simplified hedge 
accounting by aligning hedge accounting more closely 
with an entity’s risk management methodology.

The Group has evaluated the impact of IFRS 9 and based on 
preliminary assessment of the impact, it was concluded 
that it does not expect a material impact on the recognition 
and measurement of income and costs in the Consolidated 
income statement or of assets and liabilities in the 
Consolidated statement of financial position. The Group 
has assessed the classification and measurement of certain 
financial assets on the balance sheet and concluded that 
whilst there will be changes in classification, there is 
no expected material impact on results. Further, the nature 
of the Group’s cash flow hedge arrangements and the 
significance of its bad debt risk means that the impact of 
IFRS 9 will be immaterial in respect of these items. IFRS 9 
requires certain additional disclosures, in particular which 
the Group will make in the future.

Going concern
The Group’s activities together with the factors likely to 
affect its future development, performance and position 
are described within the Operating review on pages 9 to 
13, Financial review on pages 18 to 21 and in the Principal 
risks and uncertainties on pages 22 and 23.

The directors have considered the trading outlook of the 
Group, its financial position, including its cash resources 
and access to borrowings, as set out in the Financial review 
on pages 18 to 21 and in note 20 to the accounts on page 
69, and its continuing obligations, including to its defined 
benefit pension schemes, details of which are set out in 
note 24 to the accounts on pages 71 to 76. Having made 

A subsidiary is a company controlled, directly or indirectly, 
by the Group. Control is the power to govern the financial 
and operating policies of the subsidiary company so as to 
obtain benefits from its activities. A subsidiary’s results are 
included in the Group financial statements from the date 
that control commences until the date that control ceases.

Intragroup balances and any unrealised gains and losses 
or income and expenses arising from intragroup 
transactions are eliminated in preparing the consolidated 
financial statements.

Foreign currency
Transactions in foreign currencies are translated at the 
foreign exchange rate ruling at the date of the transaction. 
Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign 
currencies at the statement of financial position date are 
translated at the foreign exchange rate ruling at that date. 
Foreign exchange differences arising on translation are 
recognised in the income statement. Non-monetary 
assets and liabilities that are measured in terms of 
historical cost in a foreign currency are translated using 
the exchange rate at the date of the transaction. Non-
monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign 
currencies that are stated at fair value are translated at 
foreign exchange rates ruling at the date the fair value 
was determined.

The assets and liabilities of foreign operations, including 
goodwill and fair value adjustments arising on 
consolidation, are translated at foreign exchange rates 
ruling at the statement of financial position date.

The revenues and expenses of foreign operations are 
translated at an average rate for the period where this rate 
approximates to the foreign exchange rates ruling at the 
dates of the transactions.

Exchange differences arising from the translation of 
foreign operations, and of related qualifying hedges, are 
taken directly to the translation reserve. They are 
released into the income statement upon disposal.

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53

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTAccounting policies 
continued

Goodwill
Goodwill arising on consolidation represents the excess 
of the cost of acquisition over the Group’s interest in the 
fair value of the identifiable assets and liabilities of the 
subsidiary or associated undertaking at the date of 
acquisition.

Goodwill is recognised as an asset and is reviewed for 
impairment at least annually. Any impairment is 
recognised immediately through the income statement 
and is not subsequently reversed. Impairment losses 
recognised are allocated first to reduce the carrying value 
of the goodwill the business relates to, and then to reduce 
the carrying value of the other assets of that business on 
a pro rata basis.

On disposal of a subsidiary or associated undertaking, the 
attributable amount of goodwill is included in the 
determination of the profit or loss on disposal.

Research and development
Research and development and related product 
development costs are charged to the income statement 
in the year in which they are incurred unless they are 
specifically chargeable to and recoverable from 
customers under agreed contract terms or the 
expenditure meets the criteria for capitalisation.

Where the expenditure relates to the development of 
a new product for which the technical feasibility and 
commercial viability of the product is expected, where 
development costs can be measured reliably and where 
future economic benefits are probable, development 
costs are capitalised and amortised over their useful 
economic lives, to a maximum of five years. The 
expenditure capitalised includes costs of materials, 
direct labour and an appropriate proportion of overheads. 
Such intangible assets are assessed for indicators of 
impairment at least annually and any impairment is 
charged to the income statement.

Other intangible assets
Other intangible assets are valued at cost less 
accumulated amortisation and impairment charges and 
amortised on a straight-line basis over their estimated 
useful economic life. All intangible assets are tested for 
impairment at least annually and any impairment is 
charged to the income statement.

Property, plant and equipment
Property, plant and equipment is stated at cost or 
deemed cost less accumulated depreciation and any 
provision for impairment in value.

Depreciation is provided on a straight-line basis to write-off 
the cost, less the estimated residual value, of property, 
plant and equipment over their estimated useful lives.

The annual depreciation rates used are as follows: 

Freehold land 

– nil

Freehold buildings 

– 3% on cost or deemed cost

Leasehold property 

– over life of lease

Plant and machinery 

– 8% to 25% 

Fixtures, fittings and vehicles – 10% to 33%

The carrying value of property, plant and equipment is 
reviewed at least annually for indicators of impairment. 
Any change in value arising from impairment is charged or 
credited (up to the carrying value prior to any previous 
impairment) to the income statement for the year.

Certain items of property that had been revalued to fair 
value on or prior to 1 January 2004, the date of transition 
to IFRS, are measured on the basis of deemed cost, being 
the revalued amount at the date of the revaluation.

Investment property
Investment property, which is property held to earn 
rentals and/or for capital appreciation, is stated at cost. 
Depreciation is based on cost less residual value. Where 
the expected residual value exceeds cost no depreciation 
is provided.

Investments
Investments in subsidiary undertakings are held at cost 
less provision for any impairment in value. The carrying 
value of investments in subsidiary undertakings are 
reviewed at least annually for indicators of impairment.

Inventories
Inventories are valued at the lower of cost, including 
appropriate overheads, and net realisable value. Provisions 
are made against excess and obsolete inventories.

Construction contracts
The attributable profit recognised on construction 
contracts is based on the stage of completion and the 
overall contract profitability after taking account of 
uncertainties. Full provision is made for any estimated 
losses to completion of contracts.

The gross amount due from customers for contract work 
and the gross amount due to customers for contract work 
are shown within trade and other receivables and trade 
and other payables respectively. They are measured at 
cost plus profit recognised to date less deposits billed on 
account and recognised losses.

Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash balances and 
short- term fixed deposits, and for the statements of cash 
flows they also include bank overdrafts.

54

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55

Share capital
When share capital is repurchased, the amount of 
consideration paid, including directly attributable costs, is 
recognised as a change in equity. Repurchased shares are 
classified as treasury shares and presented as a 
deduction from total equity.

Preference share capital is classified as a liability as 
dividend payments are not discretionary.

Dividends on the preference shares are disclosed as interest 
charges, are recognised as a liability and are accounted for 
on an accruals basis. Dividends on ordinary shares are only 
recognised in the period in which they are paid.

Financial instruments
IAS 39 Financial instruments: recognition and 
measurement requires the classification of financial 
instruments into different types for which the accounting 
requirement is different. The Group has classified its 
financial instruments as follows:

 › short-term fixed deposits, principally comprising funds 
held with banks and other financial institutions, are 
classified as loans and receivables;

 › borrowings are classified as other liabilities; and
 › derivatives, comprising forward foreign exchange 

contracts, are classified as instruments that are held 
for trading.

Financial instruments are initially measured at fair 
value. Their subsequent measurement depends on 
their classification:

 ›

 ›

loans and receivables and other liabilities are held at 
amortised cost; and
instruments that are held for trading are held at fair 
value. Changes in fair value are included in the income 
statement unless the instrument is included in a cash 
flow hedge.

Hedge accounting
The Group applies cash flow hedge accounting to forward 
foreign exchange contracts, held to reduce the exposure 
to movements in the future value of foreign currency 
receipts and payments.

For those contracts included in an effective cash flow 
hedging relationship, changes in the fair value of the 
hedging instrument are recognised in other 
comprehensive income and taken to equity. When the 
hedged forecast transaction occurs, amounts previously 
recorded in equity are recognised in the income 
statement. Any ineffectiveness in the hedging 
arrangement is included in the income statement.

Post-retirement and other employee benefits
The Group and Company account for pensions and other 
post-retirement benefits under IAS 19 Employee benefits.

For defined benefit schemes, the net obligation is 
calculated separately for each scheme by estimating the 
amount of future benefits that employees have earned in 
return for their service in the current and prior periods. The 
benefit is discounted to determine its present value, and 
the fair value of the schemes’ assets (at bid price) is 
deducted. The liability discount rate is either the yield at 
the statement of financial position date on AA credit rated 
bonds that have maturity dates approximating to the terms 
of the obligations or by a cash flow matching method 
reflecting the duration of the liabilities, whichever more 
accurately reflects the schemes’ pattern of cash flows. The 
calculations are performed by qualified actuaries using the 
projected unit credit method. The expense of administering 
the pension schemes and financing income/expense of the 
schemes are recognised in the income statement. Past 
service costs/ credits and curtailment costs/credits are 
recognised in the periods in which they arise. Actuarial 
gains and losses are recognised in the period in which they 
arise in other comprehensive income.

Payments to defined contribution schemes are charged to 
the income statement as incurred.

The net obligation in respect of long-term service benefits, 
other than pension plans, is the amount of the future 
benefit that employees have earned in return for their 
service in the current and prior periods. Obligations are 
measured at their present value.

Share-based payments
The Group has applied the requirements of IFRS 2 
Share- based payments.

The Group issues equity-settled share-based payments to 
certain employees. These are measured at their fair value 
at the date of grant and are expensed on a straight-line 
basis over the vesting period, based on an estimate of the 
number of shares that will eventually vest, and adjusted for 
the effect of non-market related conditions.

Charges made to the income statement in respect of 
share-based payments are credited to retained earnings.

Provisions
A provision is recognised when the Group has a legal or 
constructive obligation as a result of a past event and it is 
probable that an outflow of economic benefits will be 
required to settle the obligation.

Revenue
Revenue comprises sales to third-party customers after 
discounts, excluding value added tax and other sales taxes.

Revenue from goods is recognised when the significant 
risks and rewards of ownership of goods are transferred to 
the customer. Revenue from services is recognised when 
value or benefit has been transferred to the customer. 

54

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55

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTAccounting policies 
continued

Where the impact of discounting to present value is 
significant, revenues are recognised at present value.

Construction contract revenues are recognised when the 
outcome of the transaction can be assessed reliably. 
Revenue is recognised by reference to the stage of 
completion which is dependent on the nature of the 
contract, but will generally be based on labour costs 
incurred up to the reporting date or achievement of 
contractual milestones where appropriate.

Leases
Rentals payable under operating leases are charged to 
the income statement over the term of the lease.

Interest receivable
Interest receivable is recognised in the income statement 
using the effective interest method as defined in IAS 39 
Financial instruments: recognition and measurement.

Borrowing costs
Borrowing costs directly attributable to the acquisition, 
construction or production of qualifying assets are added 
to the cost of those assets.

All other borrowing costs are recognised in the income 
statement in the period in which they are incurred.

Taxation
Tax on the profit or loss for the year comprises current 
and deferred tax. Tax is recognised in the income 
statement except to the extent that it relates to items 
recognised in other comprehensive income, in which case 
it is recognised in the statements of comprehensive 
income, or to items recorded directly in equity in which 
case it is recorded directly in equity.

Current tax is the expected tax payable on the taxable 
income for the year, using tax rates enacted or 
substantively enacted at the statement of financial 
position date, and any adjustment to tax payable in 
respect of previous years.

Deferred tax is the tax expected to be payable or 
recoverable on differences between the carrying 
amounts of assets and liabilities in the financial 
statements and the corresponding tax bases used in the 
computation of taxable profit, and is accounted for using 
the balance sheet liability method.

Deferred tax liabilities are generally recognised for all 
taxable temporary differences and deferred tax assets 
are recognised to the extent that it is probable that 
taxable profits will be available against which deductible 
temporary differences can be utilised. Such assets and 
liabilities are not recognised if the temporary difference 
arises from the initial recognition of goodwill; the initial 
recognition of other assets and liabilities that affect 
neither the taxable profit nor the accounting profit; and 

differences relating to investments in subsidiaries to 
the extent that they will probably not reverse in the 
foreseeable future.

The carrying amount of deferred tax assets is reviewed at 
each balance sheet date and reduced to the extent that it 
is no longer probable that sufficient taxable profits will be 
available to allow all or part of the asset to be recovered.

Deferred tax is calculated at the tax rates that are 
expected to apply in the period when the liability is settled 
or the asset is realised based on tax laws and rates that 
have been enacted or substantively enacted at the 
balance sheet date. Deferred tax is charged or credited to 
the income statement, except when it relates to items 
charged or credited in other comprehensive income, in 
which case the deferred tax is also dealt with in other 
comprehensive income.

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when there is 
a legally enforceable right to set off current tax assets 
against current tax liabilities and when they relate to 
income taxes levied by the same taxation authority and 
the Group intends to settle its current tax assets and 
liabilities on a net basis.

Operating segments
An operating segment is a component of the Group that 
is engaged in business activities from which it may earn 
revenues and incur expenses, and for which discrete 
financial information is available. All operating segments’ 
results are regularly reviewed by the Group’s chief 
operating decision maker, which is the Board of directors, 
in order to assess performance and make decisions about 
the allocation of resources to each segment.

Discontinued operations
A discontinued operation is a component of the Group’s 
business that represents a separate major line of business 
or geographical area of operations that has been disposed 
of or is held for sale, or is a subsidiary acquired exclusively 
with a view to resale. Classification as a discontinued 
operation occurs upon disposal or when the operation 
meets the criteria to be classified as held for sale, if 
earlier. When an operation is classified as a discontinued 
operation, the comparative income statement is restated 
as if the operation has been discontinued from the start of 
the comparative period.

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57

Notes to the accounts

1. Operating segments
Following the disposal of the Instrumentation & Tobacco Machinery division, and the Group’s strategic intention to 
develop the Service, segmental reporting has been amended to reflect the split of sales by both Original Equipment (OE) 
and Service together with the regional split, Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. The Group’s operating segments reflect 
the basis of the Group’s management and internal reporting structure. A commentary on the performance of the 
operating segments during the year is provided in the Operating review on pages 9 to 13. All segment information is 
prepared in accordance with the Group accounting policies shown on pages 52 to 56.

Information regarding the results of each operating segment is included below. Performance is measured based on 
underlying segment gross profit as included in the internal management reports provided to the Group’s chief operating 
decision maker. Unallocated items comprise distribution and administrative expenditure. The unallocated items are 
excluded from segment profit or loss as they are not region specific.

The measurement of segment assets and liabilities excludes central items that are not allocated to the regions  
in the Group’s internal management accounts. Unallocated items comprise mainly goodwill, net debt/funds, pension 
assets/liabilities, taxation balances and net liabilities attributable to the Group’s head office.

Segment capital expenditure is the total cost incurred during the year to acquire segment assets that are expected  
to be used for more than one period.

Segment information

Revenue¹

Americas

EMEA

Asia Pacific

Total

Gross profit¹

Selling, distribution & administration¹

Underlying operating profit/(loss)¹

Unallocated non-underlying items  
included in operating profit/(loss)

Operating profit/(loss)

Net financing expense

Profit/(loss) before tax  
from continuing operations

Americas

EMEA

Asia

Total¹

Unallocated net assets/(liabilities

Net assets – discontinued operations

Total net assets

1  From continuing operations

12 months to 31 Dec 2017

12 months to 31 Dec 2016

OE
£m

Service
£m

Total
£m

OE
£m

Service
£m

13.6

11.2

4.0

28.8

5.4

6.3

4.6

1.8

12.7

5.6

16.4

15.8

8.2

40.4

9.2

6.8

4.6

1.6

13.0

5.3

23.2

20.4

9.8

53.4

14.5

(13.2)

1.3

3.3

4.6

(0.3)

4.3

Total
£m

19.9

15.8

5.8

41.5

11.0

(12.2)

(1.2)

(1.7)

(2.9)

(0.2)

(3.1)

12 months to 31 Dec 2017

12 months to 31 Dec 2016

Segment 
assets

Segment 
liabilities

Segment 
net assets

Segment 
assets

Segment 
liabilities

Segment 
net assets

13.5

11.1

0.3

24.9

(8.6)

(10.9)

(0.1)

(19.6)

4.9

0.2

0.2

5.3

37.2

0.3

42.8

11.1

12.9

0.7

24.7

(6.2)

(11.6)

(0.5)

(18.3)

4.9

1.3

0.2

6.4

(0.1)

29.1

35.4

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57

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

1. Operating segments continued
Geographical information
Revenue

Continuing operations

UK

Europe (excl. UK)

Africa & Middle East

USA

Americas (excl. USA)

Asia Pacific

Non-current assets (excluding taxation balances)

UK

USA

Canada

Rest of the world

By location of customer

2017 
%

14

24

1

35

9

17

100

2016
£m

4.4

9.8

1.6

15.2

4.7

5.8

41.5

2017
£m 

7.3

12.7

0.4

18.5

4.7

9.8

53.4

2016
%

11

24

4

37

11

13

100

By location of assets

2017
£m

21.2

–

1.9

1.0

24.1

2016
£m

20.3

2.5

2.9

3.4

29.1

Major customers
In 2017 the Group generated 29% (2016: 24%) of revenue from two customers. The most significant customer 
accounted for 13% (2016: 15%) of Group revenue. The sales constituted both equipment and service and were spread 
across a number of different geographic regions. 

2. Other income

Profit on sale of property (included in non-underlying items)

2017
£m

4.8

2016
£m

–

In 2017 the Group sold its manufacturing facility at 6154 Kestrel Road, Mississauga, Ontario in December for a gross 
consideration of £6.8m. The profit on the sale of the facility was £4.8m.

3. Other operating expenses 

Research and development costs (expensed as incurred)

2017
£m

0.5

2016
£m

0.3

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59

4. Operating profit 

Continuing operations

Operating profit is arrived at after charging:

Amortisation of capitalised development costs

Depreciation of owned assets

Cost of inventories recognised as an expense

Operating leases

– land and buildings

– other

Audit fees paid to KPMG (Company £0.1m; 2016: £0.1m)1

Other fees paid to KPMG

– tax compliance (Company £0.1m; 2016: £0.1m)

– tax advisory (Company £0.2m; 2016: £nil)

1  From continuing operations and discontinued operations

5. Non-underlying items

Non-underlying items

Defined benefit pension schemes administration costs

Reorganisation costs

Profit on sale of surplus property

Net financing (expense)/income on pension scheme balances

Total non-underlying income/(expenditure) before tax

2017
£m

0.3

0.6

25.6

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.2

2017
£m

(0.8)

(0.7)

4.8

(0.1)

3.2

2016
£m

0.3

0.7

26.9

0.5

0.2

0.2

0.1

–

2016
£m

(0.9)

(0.8)

–

0.1

(1.6)

The profit before tax in 2017 was before the loss from discontinued operations. Cash payments of £0.1m were made in 
2017 (2016: £0.2m) in respect of reorganisations in earlier periods. A reconciliation of profit/(loss) before tax to 
underlying profit/(loss) before tax is set out in the Finance review on page 19. 

In 2016 reorganisation costs of £0.1m were incurred on discontinued operations. 

6. Employee information

Continuing operations

The number of persons employed by the Group was:

Americas

EMEA

Asia Pacific

Head Office (including non-executive directors and pension 
scheme administrators)

Total continuing operations

Discontinued operations

Total

Period end

Average

2017

2016

2017

2016

81

200

18

15

314

–

314

82

196

14

15 

307

350

657

85

192

16

17 

310

208

518

97

204

15

15

331

359

690

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59

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

6. Employee information continued

2017

2016

Note

Continuing 
£m

Discontinued 
£m

Total 
£m

Continuing 
£m

Discontinued 
£m

Total 
£m

Employment costs for the 
Group were:

Wages and salaries

Social security costs

Employee benefits

– defined contribution 
schemes

– equity-settled share-based 
transactions

24

14.8 

2.2 

1.0 

–

18.0 

4.4 

1.2 

0.2 

– 

5.8 

19.2 

3.4 

14.6 

2.3 

1.2 

1.0 

–

23.8 

– 

17.9 

9.4 

1.4 

0.4 

–

11.2 

24.0 

3.7 

1.4 

– 

29.1

7. Emoluments of directors and interests in shares
Information on the emoluments of the directors (page 31), together with information regarding the beneficial interests 
of the directors and persons connected with them in the ordinary shares of the Company, is included in the 
Remuneration report on pages 31 and 32.

8. Net financing expense

2017

2016

Continuing 
£m

Discontinued 
£m

Total 
£m

Continuing 
£m

Discontinued 
£m

Total 
£m

Financial income:

Amounts receivable on cash and cash 
equivalents

Interest received on pension scheme 
balances

Financial expenses:

Amounts payable on bank loans and 
overdrafts

Preference dividends paid

Interest cost on pension scheme balances

Net financing (expense)/income

– 

0.2 

0.2 

(0.1)

(0.1)

(0.3)

(0.5)

(0.3)

0.1 

– 

0.1 

– 

– 

– 

– 

0.1 

0.1 

0.2 

0.3 

(0.1)

(0.1)

(0.3)

(0.5)

(0.2)

– 

0.4 

0.4 

(0.2)

(0.1)

(0.3)

(0.6)

(0.2)

0.1 

– 

0.1 

– 

– 

– 

– 

0.1 

0.1 

0.4 

0.5 

(0.2)

(0.1)

(0.3)

(0.6)

(0.1)

Interest costs on pension scheme balances are included in non-underlying items.

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61

9. Taxation

Continuing operations 

Tax expense/(credit):

Current tax

Deferred tax

Total continuing operations

Discontinued operations

Total

2017
£m

0.3

1.6

1.9

0.2

2.1

2016
£m

(0.7)

–

(0.7)

0.5

(0.2)

Included within the total taxation is a tax charge of £1.7m (2016: £0.3m credit) attributable to the non-underlying items 
set out in note 5.

Reconciliation of effective tax rate

Continuing operations

Profit/(loss) before tax

Income tax using the UK corporation tax rate of 19.25% (2016: 20.00%) 

Tax effect of expenses not deductible for tax purposes

Deferred tax movements on pension payments

Change in unrecognised deferred tax assets

Foreign tax charged at higher rates than UK corporation tax rate

Total expense/(credit)

2017
£m

4.3

0.8

(0.1)

1.6

(0.5)

0.1

1.9

2016
£m

(3.1)

(0.6)

(0.4)

0.6

(0.1)

(0.2)

(0.7)

The main rate of UK corporation tax is 19 % from 1 April 2017 and will be reduced to 17% from 1 April 2020, as enacted in 
the Finance Act 2015. The rate of deferred tax liability arising from the surplus in respect of the UK defined benefit 
pension scheme is 35%.

In view of probable timing of the utilisation of brought forward losses, deferred tax assets have not been recognised on 
tax losses and timing differences in respect of the Group companies in the UK and the USA.

Deferred tax credit/(charge) on items in other comprehensive (expense)/income

Arising from actuarial gains/losses

2017 
£m

3.2

2016
£m

(2.0)

10. Current tax assets and liabilities
Current tax assets of £0.1m (2016: £0.2m) and current tax liabilities of £0.4m (2016: £0.4m) for the Group, and current 
tax assets of £0.1m (2016: £nil) for the Company, represent the amount of income taxes recoverable and payable in 
respect of current and prior periods.

60

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61

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

11. Earnings per share
Basic earnings/(loss) per share
The calculation of basic earnings/loss per ordinary share is based upon the profit for the year of £1.6m (2016: £0.6m 
loss) and the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year. The calculation of basic earnings/loss 
per ordinary share from continuing activities is based upon the profit for the period from continuing activities of £2.5m 
(2016: £2.4m loss). The weighted average number of shares excludes shares held by the employee trust in respect of 
the Company’s deferred share plan arrangements.

Diluted earnings/loss per share
The calculation of diluted earnings/loss per ordinary share is based upon the profit for the year of £1.6m (2016: £0.6m 
loss) and the diluted weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year. The calculation of diluted 
earnings/loss per ordinary share from continuing activities is based upon the profit for the period from continuing 
activities of £2.5m (2016: £2.4m loss). For diluted earnings per ordinary share, the weighted average number of shares 
includes the diluting effect, if any, of own shares held by the employee trust.

Weighted average number of ordinary shares (non-diluted) at 31 December

Effect of own shares

Weighted average number of ordinary shares (diluted) at 31 December

2017

2016

19,828,601 19,754,631

78,390

–

19,906,991 19,754,631

In the 12 months to 31 December 2016 the effect of the dilution would be to decrease the loss per ordinary share and 
is therefore excluded from the dilution calculation. 

Underlying and diluted underlying earnings per share
Underlying earnings per ordinary share and diluted underlying earnings per ordinary share, which are calculated on 
profit before non-underlying items, amounted to 4.2p (2016: 6.0p loss) in respect of underlying earnings per share 
and 4.1p (2016: 6.0p loss) in respect of diluted underlying earnings per share.

The calculations of underlying earnings per ordinary share and diluted underlying earnings per ordinary share are based 
upon an underlying profit for the period of £0.8m (2016: £1.1m loss) which is calculated as follows:

Profit/(loss) for the period 

Loss/(profit) for the period from discontinued operations

Non-underlying items (net of tax)

Underlying profit/(loss) for the period

2017
£m

1.6 

0.8

(1.6)

0.8

 2016
£m

(0.6)

(1.8)

1.3

(1.1)

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63

12. Intangible assets

Cost:

Balance at 1 January 2016

Additions

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at 
31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2017

Additions

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at  
31 December 2017

Group

Company

Goodwill
£m

Development 
costs
£m

Other 
intangibles
£m

Total
£m

Goodwill
£m

Development 
costs
£m

Other 
intangibles
£m

20.3

1.2

(0.3)

0.6

21.8

21.8

0.4

0.2

28.9

–

–

–

0.2

0.2

–

1.2

(0.3)

1.0

30.8

30.8

0.4

6.3

–

 –

–

6.3

6.3

–

17.8

0.8

(0.3)

–

18.3

18.3

0.3

0.2

–

–

–

0.2

0.2

–

(18.5)

(0.2)

(27.4)

 (6.3)

(18.1)

 (0.2)

(24.6)

Total
£m

24.3

 0.8

(0.3)

–

24.8

24.8

0.3

 8.4

–

 –

0.4

8.8

8.8

–

(8.7)

 (0.1)

_

 –

 3.7

Amortisation and impairment losses:

Balance at 1 January 2016

Amortisation for the period

Disposals

Impairment

Retranslation

Balance at 
31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2017

Amortisation for the period

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at  
31 December 2017

Carrying amounts:

At 1 January 2016

At 31 December 2016

At 31 December 2017

1.0

–

 –

 –

 –

1.0

1.0

–

(0.9)

(0.1)

 –

7.4

7.8

 –

13.0

1.5

(0.3)

–

 0.4

14.6

14.6

0.9

(12.7)

 –

 2.8

7.3

7.2

0.9

–

 –

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

0.2

0.2

–

(0.1)

 3.7

14.0

1.5

(0.3)

 –

0.4

15.6

15.6

0.9

(13.6)

 (0.1)

 2.8

14.9

15.2

 0.9

–

–

1.0

–

 – 

–

–

1.0

1.0

–

–

0.5

11.1

1.2

(0.3)

–

–

12.0

12.0

0.6

(1.0)

(12.3)

–

–

5.3

5.3

 –

–

0.3

6.7

6.3

0.2

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

 0.2

0.2

–

–

 0.5

12.1

1.2

(0.3)

–

–

13.0

13.0

0.6

(13.3)

–

 0.3

12.2

11.8

 0.2

62

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63

The amortisation for development costs is included in cost of sales in the Consolidated income statement. 

Goodwill
Following the disposal of the Instrumentation & Tobacco Machinery division in 2017 the carrying amount of goodwill at 
31 December 2017 was nil. At 31 December 2016 the carrying amount related to the acquisitions of businesses by the 
Group and Company and was attributable to the following cash generating unit (CGU).

Cerulean

Group

Company

2017 
£m

–

2016 
£m

7.8

2017
£m

–

 2016
£m

5.3

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

13. Property, plant and equipment

Group

Company

Land and 
buildings 
£m

Plant and 
machinery
£m

 Fixtures, 
fittings and 
vehicles 
£m

 Land and 
buildings 
£m

Plant and 
machinery
£m

Fixtures, 
fittings and 
vehicles
£m

Cost:

Balance at 1 January 2016

Additions

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at 31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2017

Additions

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at 31 December 2017

Depreciation:

6.6

0.2

 –

 0.8

7.6

7.6

0.1

(4.6)

 –

3.1

10.3

0.7

(1.4)

 1.5

11.1

11.1

1.0

(9.5)

 0.2

 2.8

Total
£m

25.0

1.2

(2.0)

 3.0

27.2

27.2

1.6

8.1

0.3

(0.6)

 0.7

8.5

8.5

0.5

(4.5)

 (18.6)

 –

4.5

0.2

10.4

Balance at 1 January 2016

2.0

8.3

6.7

17.0

Depreciation charge for the 
period

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at 31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2017

Depreciation charge  
for the period

Disposals

Retranslation

Balance at 31 December 2017

Carrying amounts:

At 1 January 2016

At 31 December 2016

At 31 December 2017

0.3

 –

 0.3

2.6

2.6

0.2

 (1.6)

–

1.2

4.6

5.0

1.9

0.5

(1.1)

 1.0

8.7

8.7

0.4

(7.8)

0.2

1.5

2.0

2.4

1.3

0.5

(0.5)

 0.7

7.4

7.4

0.4

(4.1)

–

3.7

1.4

1.1

0.8

1.3

(1.6)

 2.0

18.7

18.7

1.0

 (13.5)

0.2

 6.4

 8.0

8.5

4.0

Total
£m

7.6

0.3

3.3

0.1

(0.2)

 (0.2)

–

3.2

3.2

 –

–

7.7

7.7

0.1

0.9

0.1

–

–

1.0

1.0

–

 (0.7)

(2.2)

(3.9)

–

0.3

0.5

0.2

–

–

0.7

0.7

0.1

(0.5)

–

0.3

0.4

0.3

–

–

1.0

2.7

 0.2

 (0.2)

–

2.7

2.7

0.1

(1.9)

–

0.9

0.6

0.5

0.1

–

3.9

4.4

0.6

 (0.2)

–

4.8

4.8

0.3

(3.0)

–

2.1

3.2

2.9

1.8

3.4

0.1

–

–

3.5

3.5

0.1

(1.0)

–

2.6

1.2

0.2

–

–

1.4

1.4

0.1

(0.6)

–

0.9

2.2

2.1

1.7

At 31 December 2017 assets disclosed as land and buildings with a carrying value of £1.9m were used as security for 
bank facilities (2016: £4.6m).

In 2017 included within the Group’s depreciation charge for the period was £0.4m in respect of discontinued operations.

64

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65

14. Investment property

Balance at 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2016

Balance at 31 December 2017

Group

Company

2017
£m

0.8

0.8

 2016 
£m

0.8

0.8

2017 
£m

0.8

0.8

2016
£m

0.8

0.8

Investment property is shown at cost. The fair value of the investment property at 31 December 2017 is £0.9m (2016: 
£0.9m) and has been arrived at on the basis of a valuation carried out by independent valuers, Wilks Head & Eve LLP. 
The valuation, which conforms to International Valuation Standards, was arrived at by reference to market evidence of 
transaction prices for similar properties.

15. Investments

Balance at 1 January

Disposal of investment

Balance at 31 December

Cost of shares  
in subsidiaries

2017 
£m

50.6

(3.2)

47.4

2016
£m

50.6

–

50.6

The Company’s subsidiary undertakings are shown in note 32.

Disposal of investments
On 1 August 2017 the Company disposed of its investment in the Instrumentation & Tobacco Machinery division. 

Impairment review of investments
Annual impairment reviews of investments in subsidiaries are undertaken and are determined from value in use 
calculations for each cash generating unit (CGU) using cash flow projections based on the latest three year plan 
approved by the Board. The main assumptions for each CGU, which relate to sales volume, selling prices and cost 
changes, are based on recent history and expectations of future changes in the market. Cash flows beyond the period  
of the projections are extrapolated at growth rates which do not exceed those used in the three year plan. The discount 
rate applied to the cash flow forecasts for each CGU is based on a market participant’s pre-tax weighted average cost  
of capital of 11.0% (2016: 8.4% to 18.8%).

There has been no impairment of investments in subsidiaries in the year. Management considers that reasonable 
possible changes in the assumptions would be an increase in the weighted average cost of capital of 1.0%, a reduction  
in the sales of the subsidiaries of 5% and a 5% reduction in their operating profit. None of these changes in assumptions 
would have resulted in an impairment of investments in subsidiaries in the year.

64

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65

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORT 
Notes to the accounts 
continued

16. Deferred tax assets and liabilities
Deferred tax assets and liabilities are attributable to the following:

Group

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Employee benefits

Inventories

Foreign currency derivatives

Provisions

Translation movements on foreign 
currency investments

Tax losses

Deferred tax (liabilities)/assets

Offset of tax

Net deferred tax (liabilities)/assets

Company

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Employee benefits

Provisions

Tax losses

Deferred tax (liabilities)/assets

Offset of tax

Net deferred tax liabilities

Assets

2017
£m

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

1.7

1.7

–

1.7

Assets

2017
£m

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

2016
£m

1.7

0.1

2.7

0.1

0.1

0.4

–

0.6

5.7

(1.1)

4.6

2016
£m

–

0.1

–

0.2

0.6

0.9

(0.9)

–

Liabilities

Net

2017
£m

–

–

(6.3)

–

–

–

–

–

(6.3)

–

(6.3)

2016
£m

(1.3)

–

(1.6)

–

–

–

(0.2)

–

(3.1)

1.1

(2.0)

2017
£m

–

–

(6.3)

–

–

–

–

1.7

(4.6)

–

(4.6)

Liabilities

Net

2017
£m

–

–

(6.3)

–

–

(6.3)

–

(6.3)

2016
£m

(1.3)

–

(1.6)

–

–

(2.9)

0.9

(2.0)

2017
£m

–

–

(6.3)

–

–

(6.3)

–

(6.3)

2016
£m

0.4

0.1

1.1

0.1

0.1

0.4

(0.2)

0.6

2.6

–

2.6

2016
£m

(1.3)

0.1

(1.6)

0.2

0.6

(2.0)

–

(2.0)

Deferred tax is measured at the rates that are expected to apply in the period when the temporary differences are 
expected to reverse, based on tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the statement  
of financial position date.

No deferred tax is recognised on the unremitted earnings of overseas subsidiaries and associates. As the earnings are 
continually reinvested by the Group, no tax is expected to be payable on them in the foreseeable future.

Unrecognised deferred tax assets
Deferred tax assets have not been recognised in respect of temporary differences arising in certain subsidiary companies.

These assets are only recognised to the extent that it is probable that taxable profits will be available against which the 
deferred tax asset can be utilised. At the year end the Group had £9.3m of unrecognised deferred tax assets (2016: 
£10.9m) which would become recoverable if the relevant companies were to make sufficient profits in the future. 
Under current tax legislation these tax assets expire as follows:

Expiry

10 to 20 years

No expiry date

Group

2017 
£m

4.9

4.4

9.3

2016
£m

5.7

5.2

10.9

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67

Movement in temporary differences during the year

Group

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Employee benefits

Inventories

Foreign currency derivatives

Provisions

Translation movements on foreign 
currency investments

Tax losses

Group

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Employee benefits

Inventories

Foreign currency derivatives

Provisions

Translation movements on foreign 
currency investments

Own shares (employee trust)

Tax losses

Company

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Employee benefits

Foreign currency derivatives

Provisions

Own shares (employee trust)

Tax losses

Balance at  
1 January 
2017 
£m

Recognised 
in profit  
or loss 
£m

Recognised  
in other 
comprehensive 
income/
(expense) 
£m

Recorded  
in equity 
£m

Retranslation 
£m

Balance at  
31 December 
2017
£m

0.4

0.1

1.1

0.1

0.1

0.4

(0.2)

0.6

2.6

(0.4)

(0.1)

(4.4)

(0.1)

(0.1)

(0.4)

0.2

1.1

(4.2)

–

–

(3.2)

–

–

–

–

–

(3.2)

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

0.2

–

–

–

–

–

0.2

–

–

(6.3)

–

–

–

–

1.7

(4.6)

Balance at
1 January
2016 
£m

Recognised
in profit
or loss 
£m

Recognised  
in other 
comprehensive
income/
(expense) 
£m

Recorded
in equity 
£m

Retranslation 
£m

Balance at
31 December
2016 
£m

(0.1)

–

(1.1)

0.2

0.2

0.4

(0.2)

0.1

0.4

(0.1)

0.2

0.1

(0.3)

(0.1)

–

–

–

(0.1)

0.2

–

–

–

2.0

–

(0.2)

–

–

–

–

1.8

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

0.3

–

0.5

–

0.1

–

–

–

–

0.9

0.4

0.1

1.1

0.1

0.1

0.4

(0.2)

–

0.6

2.6

Balance at  
1 January 
2017 
£m

Recognised 
in profit or 
loss 
£m

Recognised 
in other 
comprehensive 
income/ 
(expense) 
£m

Recorded  
in equity 
£m

Balance at  
31 December 
2017 
£m

(1.3)

0.1

(1.6)

–

0.2

–

0.6

(2.0)

1.3

(0.1)

(1.5)

–

(0.2)

–

(0.6)

(1.1)

–

–

(3.2)

–

–

–

–

(3.2)

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

(6.3)

–

–

–

–

(6.3)

66

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67

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

16. Deferred tax assets and liabilities continued

Company

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Employee benefits

Foreign currency derivatives

Provisions

Own shares (employee trust)

Tax losses

17. Inventories

Raw materials and consumables

Work in progress

Finished goods

Balance at 
 1 January 
2016 
£m

Recognised 
in profit or 
loss 
£m

Recognised 
in other 
comprehensive 
income/ 
(expense) 
£m

Recorded  
in equity 
£m

Balance at  
31 December 
2016 
£m

(1.3)

0.1

(3.7)

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.3

(4.3)

–

–

(0.4)

–

0.1

(0.1)

0.3

(0.1)

–

–

2.5

(0.1)

–

–

–

2.4

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Group

Company

2017
£m

– 

1.0

1.4

2.4

2016
£m

1.8

 4.4

6.8

13.0

2017
£m

– 

–

0.2

0.2

(1.3)

0.1

(1.6)

–

0.2

–

0.6

(2.0)

2016
£m

0.9

 0.9

4.4

6.2

An amount of £nil (2016: £0.1m) has been charged in the year in respect of inventory write-downs.

18. Construction contracts

Contracts in progress at statement of financial position date:

Gross amount due from customers for contract work  
(included in Trade and other receivables)

Gross amount due to customers for contract work  
(included in Trade and other payables)

Group

2017
£m

2016
£m

Company

2017
£m

2016
£m

5.0

2.1

0.2

0.1

(4.6)

(3.7)

(2.3)

(2.9)

Revenue from continuing operations recognised during the year in respect of construction contracts amounted to 
£43.8m (2016: £25.7m) for the Group and £7.5m (2016: £4.5m) for the Company.

For contracts in progress at the statement of financial position date, the contract costs incurred plus recognised profits 
less recognised losses to date was £33.0m (2016: £10.5m) for the Group and £11.4m (2016: £3.4m) for the Company. 
Advances received from customers for contract work amounted to £10.9m (2016: £7.9m) and £6.3m (2016: £3.1m) for 
the Company.

Included within gross amount due to customers for contract work are trade receivables where deposits were invoiced 
but not received of £4.1m (2016: £1.7m) for the Group and £2.7m (2016: £1.1m) for the Company.

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69

19. Trade and other receivables

Non-current assets:

Other receivables

Current assets:

Trade receivables

Amounts owed by Group undertakings

Construction contracts

Other receivables

Prepayments and accrued income

Foreign currency derivatives

20. Interest-bearing loans and borrowings

Non-current liabilities:

Repayable between one and two years

More than five years

Group

Company

2016
 £m 

 2017 
£m 

2016
£m

2017 
£m

0.8

0.8

11.7

–

5.0

1.3

1.4

0.5

19.9

–

–

17.8

–

2.1

0.9

3.7

–

24.5

0.8

0.8

3.1

0.1

0.2

0.8

1.0

0.3

5.5

Group

Company

2017
£m

–

0.9

0.9

2016
£m

7.0

0.9

7.9

2017
£m

–

0.9

0.9

–

–

7.8

2.0

0.1

0.3

1.8

0.3

12.3

2016
£m

7.0

0.9

7.9

Preference shares
The preference shares carry a fixed cumulative preferential dividend at the rate of 6% per annum and on the winding-up 
of the Company entitle the holders to repayment of the capital paid up thereon (together with a sum equal to any arrears 
or deficiency of the fixed dividend calculated to the date of the return of capital and to be payable irrespective of 
whether such dividend has been declared or earned or not) in priority to any payment to the holders of the ordinary 
shares. The preference shares do not entitle the holders to any further participation in the profits or assets of 
the Company.

The preference shareholders are not entitled to receive notice of or to attend or vote at any general meeting 
unless either:

 › at the date of the notice convening the meeting, the dividend on the preference shares is six months in arrears (for this 
purpose the dividend on the preference shares is deemed to be payable half-yearly on 30 June and 31 December); or

 › the business of the meeting includes the consideration of a resolution for the winding-up of the Company, or for 
reducing its share capital or for sanctioning a sale of the undertaking, or any resolution directly and adversely 
affecting any of the special rights or privileges attached to the preference shares.

There were no arrears in the payment of preference dividends at the statement of financial position date. 
Preference dividends paid amounted to £0.1m (2016: £0.1m).

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69

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

21. Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds/debts

Group

Company

Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

Cash movement in borrowings

Change in net funds/(debt) resulting from cash flows

Translation movements

Movement in net funds/(debt) in the period

Opening net funds/(debt)

Closing net funds/(debt)

Analysis of net funds/(debt):

Cash and cash equivalents – current assets

Bank overdrafts – current liabilities

Interest-bearing loans and borrowings – non-current liabilities

Closing net funds/(debt)

22. Trade and other payables

Current liabilities:

Deposits received on account

Trade payables

Amounts owed to Group undertakings

Construction contracts

Other taxes and social security

Other payables

Accruals and deferred income

Foreign currency derivatives

2017 
£m

21.3

7.0

28.3

0.3

28.6

0.8

29.4

30.3

–

(0.9)

29.4

Group

2017 
£m

1.3

5.1

–

4.6

0.7

2.6

6.6

–

2016
£m

(1.8)

5.2

3.4

0.6

4.0

(3.2)

0.8

9.0

(0.3)

(7.9)

0.8

2016
£m

3.9

7.0

–

3.7

0.6

2.6

7.8

0.3

 2017 
£m

18.0

7.0

25.0

–

25.0

(5.2)

19.8

20.7

–

(0.9)

19.8

Company

 2017 
£m

0.1

1.1

16.5

2.3

0.2

1.0

2.6

0.3

2016
£m

(3.7)

5.2

1.5

(0.1)

1.4

(6.6)

(5.2)

2.7

–

(7.9)

(5.2)

2016
£m

0.3

4.4

10.2

2.9

0.3

1.1

2.8

0.3

Deposits received on account of £1.3m (2016: £3.9m) for the Group and £0.1m (2016: £0.3m) for the Company exclude 
£2.0m (2016: £2.8m) for the Group and £0.1m (2016: £0.5m) for the Company of deposit amounts billed on short-term 
contracts but not received. The deposit amounts billed but not received are included in accruals and deferred income.

20.9

25.9

24.1

22.3

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23. Provisions

Group

Balance at 1 January

Provisions created in the year

Utilised during the year

Unused amounts reversed

Retranslation

Balance at 31 December

Company

Balance at 1 January

Provisions created in the year

Utilised during the year

Unused amounts reversed

Balance at 31 December

2017

Continued
£m

Discontinued
£m

 1.4 

 1.0 

(1.1)

(0.2)

(0.1 )

 1.0 

 0.3 

 0.3 

(0.6) 

 – 

 – 

 – 

2017

Continued
£m

Discontinued
£m

 0.2 

 0.1 

(0.2) 

 – 

 0.1 

 0.3 

 0.1 

(0.4) 

 – 

 – 

Total
£m

 1.7 

 1.3 

(1.7) 

(0.2) 

(0.1)

 1.0 

Total
£m

 0.5 

 0.2 

(0.6) 

 – 

 0.1 

2016

Continued
£m

Discontinued
£m

 0.6 

 1.1 

(0.2) 

(0.3) 

 0.2 

 1.4 

 0.6 

 0.4 

(0.7)

 – 

 – 

 0.3 

2016

Continued
£m

Discontinued
£m

 0.2 

 0.2 

(0.1)

(0.1) 

 0.2 

 0.4 

 0.2 

(0.1) 

(0.2) 

 0.3 

Total
£m

 1.2 

 1.5 

(0.9)

(0.3) 

 0.2 

 1.7 

Total
£m

 0.6 

 0.4 

(0.2)

(0.3) 

 0.5 

Provisions are based on historical data and a weighting of all possible outcomes against their associated possibilities. 
Provisions relate primarily to product warranties. Except for specific identifiable claims, they are generally utilised 
within one year of the statement of financial position date. 

24. Employee benefits
Defined contribution pension schemes
The Group operates a number of defined contribution pension schemes for employees. Contributions to these schemes 
are recognised as an expense in the Consolidated income statement as they fall due.

Defined benefit pension schemes
The Group is responsible for defined benefit pension schemes in the UK and the USA. All schemes are funded by Group 
companies as necessary, at rates determined by independent actuaries and as agreed between the trustees of the 
schemes and the sponsoring company.

The defined benefit pension schemes are administered by bodies that are legally separated from the Group. The trustees 
of the schemes are required by law to act in the interest of the schemes and of all relevant stakeholders in the schemes. 
The trustees of the schemes are responsible for the investment policies in respect of the assets of the schemes.

The pension schemes typically expose the Group to certain risks. These include the risk of investment under-
performance, a fall in interest rates, an increase in life expectancy and an increase in inflation.

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71

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

24. Employee benefits continued
UK pension scheme
The Group operated one defined benefit pension scheme in the UK in which future accruals ceased in November 2012. 
The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the Company and it is funded by the Company as necessary 
in order to ensure that the scheme can meet the expected benefit obligations. The funding policy is to ensure that the 
assets held by the scheme in the future are adequate to meet expected liabilities, allowing for future increases in 
pensions. The only assets of the scheme which are invested in the Company are an interest in the cumulative preference 
shares of the Company with an estimated current market value of £0.2m.

The most recent formal actuarial valuation of the scheme was carried out as at 30 June 2015 using the projected unit 
credit method. The market value of the scheme assets at that date was £350.6m and the funding level was 83% of 
liabilities, which represented a deficit of £70.0m. The principal terms of the deficit funding agreement between the 
Company and the Fund’s Trustees, which is effective until 31 August 2029, but, is subject to reassessment every 3 years 
are as follows:

 › the Company will continue to pay a sum of £1.8m per annum to the Fund (increasing at 2.1 per cent. per annum) in 

 ›

deficit recovery payments;
if underlying operating profit (operating profit before non-underlying items) in any year is in excess of £5.5m, the 
Company will pay to the Fund an amount of 33% of the difference between the annual underlying operating profit and 
£5.5m, subject to a cap on underlying operating profit of £10.0m for the purpose of calculating this payment; this part 
of the agreement will fall away in 2021 if the funding deficit is above certain levels; and 

 › payments of dividends by Mpac Group plc will not exceed the value of payments being made to the Fund in any one year.

The Company paid a one-off amount to the fund of £2.4m, representing 10% of the net proceeds (after costs and 
taxation) of the sale of the Instrumentation & Tobacco Machinery (I&TM) division. 

The deficit recovery period from 30 June 2015 was estimated to be 14 years and 2 months, which is scheduled to 
be formally reassessed following the completion of the actuarial valuation being carried out as at 30 June 2018.

During the year the Company paid deficit recovery contributions of £1.8m (2016: £1.8m) and a contribution of £2.4m 
following the disposal of the I&TM business being 10% of net proceeds.

The Company accounts for pension costs under IAS 19 Employee benefits and the valuation used has been based on 
detailed actuarial valuation work carried out as at 30 June 2015, updated by the Company’s actuary to assess the value 
of the liabilities of the scheme at 31 December 2017. Scheme assets are stated at their market value at 31 December 2017.

USA pension schemes
In the USA the Group has three defined benefit pension schemes, all of which are closed to future accrual. Formal 
independent actuarial valuations of the USA pension schemes were carried out as at 1 January 2017 using the projected 
unit credit method. The valuations under IAS 19 at 31 December 2017 have been based on these actuarial valuations, 
updated for conditions existing at the year end.

Employer contributions of £0.7m (2016: £0.2m) including £0.4m as a result of the disposal in 2015 of the assets of Arista 
laboratories were paid during the year.

Assumptions
The key financial assumptions used to calculate scheme liabilities and the financing expense on pension scheme 
balances are as follows:

Discount rate

Inflation rate

– CPI

– RPI

Increases to pensions in payment

– final salary benefits

– career average benefits

UK (Company)

USA

2017

2.3%

2.1%

3.2%

2.1%

1.9%

2016

2.5%

2.2%

3.3%

2.2%

2.0%

2017

3.5%

2016

4.0%

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

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73

The assumptions relating to longevity underlying the pension liabilities of the defined benefit pension schemes at 
the statement of financial position date are based on standard actuarial mortality tables and include an allowance for 
future improvements in longevity. The assumptions are equivalent to expecting an individual to live for a number of 
years as follows:

Current pensioner aged 65 – male

Current pensioner aged 65 – female

Future retiree currently aged 45 upon reaching age 65 – male

Future retiree currently aged 45 upon reaching age 65 – female

UK 
scheme

USA
 schemes

21.3 years 20.6 years

23.6 years 22.6 years

22.6 years 20.5 years

25.1 years

23.1 years

At 31 December 2017 the weighted average duration of the defined benefit obligation in the UK scheme was 15 years 
(2016: 15 years) and in the USA schemes 11 years (2016: 11 years).

Significant actuarial assumptions for the determination of the defined benefit obligations are discount rate, inflation rate 
and mortality. The sensitivity analysis below has been determined assuming that all other assumptions are held constant.

Changes in values of pension schemes’ liabilities before tax as at 31 December 2017

0.1% change in discount rate

0.1% change in inflation rate

Change in life expectancy by one year on average

Categories of assets and funded status
The fair values of scheme assets were as follows:

UK (Company)

2017 
£m

1.5

80.0

102.3

63.1

38.9

1.8

124.8

2.2

414.6

2016
£m

9.6

103.9

81.2

51.2

36.6

1.8

116.0

1.6

 401.9

USA

 2017 
£m

–

6.2

–

9.5

1.0

–

–

–

2016
£m

–

5.4

–

10.7

1.0

–

–

–

 16.7

 17.1 

UK equities

Overseas equities

Bonds – index linked gilts

Bonds – other

Properties – funds

Properties – directly owned

Absolute return funds

Other

Total fair (bid) value of scheme assets

Present value of defined 
benefit obligations

Defined benefit asset/(liability)

UK 
scheme

£5.8m

£3.2m

USA 
schemes

£0.3m

n/a

£19.6m

£1.0m

Group

 2017 
£m

1.5

86.2

102.3

72.6

39.9

1.8

124.8

2.2

431.3

2016
£m

9.6

109.3

81.2

61.9

37.6

1.8

116.0

1.6

 419.0

(397.0)

(397.3)

17.6

4.6

(22.9)

(6.2)

(23.9)

(6.8)

(419.9)

(421.2)

11.4

(2.2)

All equities, bonds, property funds and absolute return funds have quoted prices in active markets. Directly owned 
properties are subject to an independent valuation.

72

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73

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

24. Employee benefits continued
Disclosed defined benefit pension income/expense for financial year
A) Components of defined benefit pension income/expense
Net defined benefit pension expense recognised in the Consolidated income statement comprises:

Interest expense/(income) 

Administration costs

Expense recognised in income 
statement

UK (Company)

USA

Group

2017 
£m

(0.2) 

0.6

2016
£m

 (0.4)

0.7

0.4

0.3

 2017 
£m

0.3

0.2

0.5

2016
£m

0.3

0.2

0.5

2017 
£m

0.1

0.8

2016
£m

(0.1)

0.9

0.9

0.8

B) Statements of comprehensive income (SOCI)
The actuarial gains recognised in the SOCI in respect of pensions were £9.1m (2016: losses of £6.3m), comprising 
actuarial gains of £9.2m (2016: losses of £7.5m) for the UK defined benefit pension scheme and actuarial losses of 
£0.1m (2016: gains of £1.2m) for the USA schemes, all figures before tax.

Actual return on scheme assets
The actual return on scheme assets were gains of £30.4m (2016: £73.7m), comprising gains of £28.4m (2016: £72.9m) 
for the UK defined benefit pension scheme and gains of £2.0m (2016: £0.8m) for the USA schemes, all figures 
before tax.

Reconciliation of the present value of defined benefit obligations

Present value of defined benefit 
obligations at 1 January

Interest cost

Actuarial losses/(gains)

– Changes in demographic assumptions

– Changes in financial assumptions

– Experience

Benefit payments

Retranslation

Present value of defined benefit 
obligations at 31 December

UK (Company)

USA

Group

2017 
£m

397.3

9.7

–

11.5

(2.2)

(19.3)

–

2016
£m

336.3

12.1

–

72.0

(4.1)

(19.0)

–

 2017 
£m

23.9

0.9

(0.2)

1.3

0.4

(1.4)

(2.0)

2016
£m

21.5

0.9

(0.4)

–

(0.6)

(1.4)

3.9

 2017 
£m

421.2

10.6

(0.2)

12.8

(1.8)

(20.7)

(2.0)

2016
£m

357.8

13.0

(0.4)

72.0

(4.7)

(20.4)

3.9

397.0

397.3

22.9

23.9

419.9

421.2

At 31 December 2017 the pensioner population accounted for 64% (2016: 57%) of the UK scheme’s obligations and 
70% (2016: 56%) of the USA schemes’ obligations.

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75

Reconciliation of the fair value of scheme assets

Fair value of scheme assets at 1 January

Interest income

Actuarial gains/(losses)

– Return on scheme assets

Company contributions

Administration expenses

Benefit payments

Retranslation

Fair value of scheme assets at  
31 December

Experience gains and losses for the year 

Fair value of scheme assets 

Defined benefit obligations

Net asset/(liability)

Actuarial gains/(losses)
on scheme assets

Actuarial (losses)/gains on defined 
benefit obligations

Net gain/(loss) recognised in the  
SOCI during the year

UK (Company)

USA

Group

2017 
£m

401.9

9.9

18.5

4.2

(0.6)

(19.3)

–

2016
£m

346.9

12.5

60.4

1.8

(0.7)

(19.0)

–

 2017 
£m

17.1

0.6

1.4

0.7

(0.2)

(1.4)

(1.5)

2016
£m

14.9

0.6

0.2

0.2

(0.2)

(1.4)

2.8

 2017 
£m

419.0

10.5

19.9

4.9

(0.8)

(20.7)

(1.5)

2016
£m

361.8

13.1

60.6

2.0

(0.9)

(20.4)

2.8

414.6

401.9

16.7

17.1

431.3

419.0

UK (Company)

USA

Group

2017 
£m

414.6 

(397.0)

17.6

2016
£m

401.9 

(397.3)

4.6

18.5

60.4

(9.3)

(67.9)

9.2

(7.5)

 2017 
£m

16.7

(22.9)

(6.2)

1.4

(1.5)

(0.1)

2016
£m

 17.1 

(23.9)

(6.8)

0.2

1.0

1.2

 2017 
£m

431.3 

(419.9)

11.4

2016
£m

419.0

(421.2)

(2.2)

19.9

60.6

(10.8)

(66.9)

9.1

(6.3)

Movements in the net liability/asset of defined benefit pension schemes recognised in the Statements of financial 
position.

Net (liability)/asset for employee 
benefits at 1 January

Expense recognised in the income 
statement (see below)

Company contributions

Actuarial (losses)/gains recognised 
in the SOCI

Retranslation

Net asset/(liability) for employee 
benefits at 31 December

UK (Company)

2017 
£m

2016
£m

USA

 2017 
£m

2016
£m

Group

 2017 
£m

2016
£m

4.6

10.6

(6.8)

(6.6)

(2.2)

4.0

(0.4)

4.2

9.2

–

(0.3)

1.8

(7.5)

–

(0.5)

0.7

(0.1)

0.5

(0.5)

0.2

1.2

(1.1)

17.6

4.6

(6.2)

(6.8)

(0.9)

4.9

9.1

0.5

11.4

(0.8)

2.0

(6.3)

(1.1)

(2.2)

At the end of the life of the UK defined benefit pension scheme the Company has an unconditional right to a refund and 
any such refund would be paid out only on a net of tax basis.

74

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75

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORT 
Notes to the accounts 
continued

24. Employee benefits continued
Defined benefit pension schemes income/expense recognised in the Consolidated income statement
The income/expense is recognised in the following line items in the Consolidated income statement:

Administrative expenses 

Financial expense/(income)

Net pension expense

UK (Company)

USA

Group

2017 
£m

0.6 

(0.2)

0.4

2016
£m

0.7

(0.4)

0.3

 2017 
£m

 0.2

0.3

0.5

2016
£m

0.2

0.3

0.5

 2017 
£m

 0.8

0.1

0.9

2016
£m

 0.9

(0.1)

0.8

The net pension expense is included in non-underlying items.

Share-based payments
The Company currently operates a deferred share plan. Own shares are held in trust and granted to plan participants 
when certain conditions are met. Further details of the Deferred share plan, including the performance conditions 
and vesting periods, are in the Remuneration Committee report on pages 30 to 37 and in this note.

The share awards that were subject to conditional grants during the year were:

1 December 2013a 

27 February 2014b

1 December 2014c

1 April 2016

8 June 2017

At 1 January 
2017

41,400

42,000

88,200

122,200

Granted

Lapsed

Exercised

At  
31 December 
2017

–

–

(41,400)

(42,000)

(75,600)

(12,600)

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

(69,800)

–

132,600

–

–

–

52,400

132,600

293,800

132,600

(145,400)

(96,000)

185,000

a  Exercised under Deferred share plan on 15 June 2017 at a market price of 119.0p.
b  Exercised under Deferred share plan on 15 June 2017 at a market price of 119.0p.
c  Exercised under Deferred share plan on 5 December 2017 at a market price of 152.0p.

Granting of all conditional awards and the exercise of such awards are at nil cost to the participant. 

The share-based compensation charge for the year amounted to £nil (2016: £nil).

The fair value of the conditional awards made under the Deferred share plan has been based on the market price of the 
Company’s shares at the date of grant, reduced by the assumptions made (for the purposes of this exercise) in respect 
of the present value of dividends expected to be paid (at the time of grant) during the vesting period. The fair value of 
each conditional award is as follows:

Date of award

1 April 2016

8 June 2017

Fair value  
per share

46.0p

74.0p

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77

25. Capital and reserves
Share capital

Allotted, called up and fully paid

Ordinary shares of 25p each

2017 
£m

5.0

2016 
£m

5.0

There were 20,171,540 (2016: 20,171,540) ordinary shares in issue at the year end. The holders of the ordinary shares 
are entitled to one vote per share at meetings of the Company and to receive dividends as declared from time to time. 
At the year end an employee trust held 347,016 of the ordinary shares and it has agreed to waive all dividends and not to 
exercise voting rights in respect of these shares. The Company also has in issue 900,000 6% fixed cumulative 
preference shares of £1 each (see note 20); these are classified as borrowings.

Translation reserve
The translation reserve comprises all foreign exchange differences arising from the translation of the financial 
statements of foreign operations.

Capital redemption reserve
The capital redemption reserve records the historical repurchase of the Company’s own shares.

Hedging reserve
The hedging reserve comprises the effective portion of the cumulative net change in the fair value of cash flow hedging 
instruments related to hedged transactions that have not yet occurred.

Investment in own shares
Included within retained earnings is the carrying value of own shares held in trust for the benefit of employees. 
These shares are used to service the obligations of the Company’s Deferred share plan. Further details of the 
Deferred share plan can be found in the Remuneration Committee report on pages 30 to 37 and on page 76 in note 24.

At 31 December 2017 the employee trust held 347,016 (2016: 371,416) ordinary shares of 25p each, representing 1.7% 
of the issued shares (2016: 1.8%), 185,000 of which were subject to conditional grants. The shares held by the trust 
were purchased at an aggregate cost of £0.5m (2016: £0.5m). The trust purchased 71,600 additional shares in the year 
at a cost of £0.1m. In 2016 there were no additional shares purchased. 

The market value of the shares held by the trust at 31 December 2016 was £0.5m (2016: £0.2m).

Dividends

Dividends to shareholders paid in the period:

Final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2015 of 1.5p per ordinary share

Interim dividend for the year ended 31 December 2016 of 1.25p per ordinary share

2017 
£m

2016 
£m

–

–

–

0.3

0.2

0.5

Having considered the trading results for 2017, together with the opportunities for investment in the growth of the 
Company, the Board has decided that it is appropriate not to pay a final dividend. No interim dividend was paid in 2017. 
Future dividend payments and the development of a new dividend policy will be considered by the Board in the context 
of 2018 trading performance and when the Board believes it is prudent to do so.

26. Financial risk management
The Group has exposure to credit, liquidity and market risks from its use of financial instruments.

These risks are regularly considered and the impact of these risks on the Group, and how to mitigate them, assessed. 
The Board of directors is responsible for the Group’s system of internal controls and has established risk management 
policies to identify and analyse the risks faced by the Group, to set appropriate risk limits and controls, and to monitor 
risks and adherence to limits. The Audit Committee assists the Board in the discharge of its duty in relation to the 
maintenance of proper internal controls. Further details regarding the Audit Committee can be found in its report on 
pages 28 and 29.

76

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77

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

26. Financial risk management continued
Categories of financial instruments 

Financial assets:

Derivative instruments in designated hedge accounting 
relationships 

Loans and receivables (including cash and cash equivalents)

Financial liabilities:

Derivative instruments in designated hedge accounting 
relationships

Amortised cost

Group

2017 
£m

Company

2016
£m

 2017 
£m

2016
£m

0.5

43.5

44.0

–

21.8

21.8

– 

26.8 

26.8

0.3

33.8

34.1

0.3 

25.4

25.7

0.3

24.7

25.0

0.3

 12.5

12.8

0.3

29.9

30.2

Amortised cost comprises interest-bearing loans and borrowings and trade and other payables, excluding foreign 
currency derivatives.

IFRS 7 Financial instruments: disclosures for financial instruments that are measured in the Statements of financial 
position at fair value requires disclosure of fair value measurements in the form of a three level fair value hierarchy, 
by class, for all financial instruments recognised at fair value. The Group uses the following hierarchy for determining 
and disclosing the fair value of financial instruments by valuation technique:

Level 1:  quoted (unadjusted) prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities;

Level 2:    inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either 

directly (i.e. as prices) or indirectly (i.e. derived from prices); and

Level 3:    inputs for the asset or liability that are not based on observable market data (unobservable inputs). 

At 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2017 the Group held all financial instruments at Level 2.

Credit risk
Credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the Group if a customer or counterparty to a financial instrument fails to meet its 
contractual obligations and arises principally from the Group’s receivables from customers and cash held at financial 
institutions. In addition, for the Company, a credit risk exists in respect of amounts owed by Group undertakings.

Trade receivables
The Group ensures that the provision of credit to customers is adequately managed by each individual business in order 
that the risk of non-payment or delayed payment is minimised. The Group’s exposure to risk is influenced mainly by the 
individual characteristics of each customer, the industry and country in which customers operate. The Group has a 
diversified base of customers. In certain years sales to a customer may be more than 5%, although the sales would 
typically be both original equipment and service, and to a number of different geographic regions.

The Group has written credit control policies which cover procedures for accepting new customers, setting credit limits, 
dealing with overdue amounts and delinquent payers.

An impairment loss provision against trade receivables is created where it is anticipated that the value of trade 
receivables is not fully recoverable.

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79

Exposure to credit risk
The carrying amount of financial assets represents the maximum credit exposure. The maximum exposure to credit 
risk for the Group and the Company at 31 December was:

Trade receivables

Amounts owed by Group undertakings

Other receivables

Foreign currency derivatives

Cash and cash equivalents

Group

Company

2017 
£m

11.7

–

1.5

0.5

30.3

44.0

2016
£m

17.8

–

–

–

9.0

26.8

 2017 
£m

3.1

0.1

1.5

0.3

20.7

25.7

2016
£m

7.8

2.0

–

0.3

2.7

12.8

Impairment loss provisions
The ageing of trade receivables and the impairment loss provisions for the Group and the Company at 31 December were:

Group

Not past due

Past due up to 30 days

Past due 31–60 days

Past due 61–90 days

Past due more than 91 days

Company

Not past due

Past due up to 30 days

Past due 31–60 days

Past due 61–90 days

Past due more than 91 days

2017

Impairment 
loss 
provisions 
£m

–

–

–

–

–

–

2017

Impairment 
loss 
provisions 
£m

–

–

–

–

–

–

Gross 
£m

7.5

3.4

0.2

0.1

0.5

11.7

Gross 
£m

3.1

–

–

–

–

3.1

Total  
£m

7.5

3.4

0.2

0.1

0.5

11.7

Total 
£m

3.1

–

–

–

–

3.1

2016

Impairment 
loss 
provisions 
£m

–

–

–

–

(0.1)

(0.1)

2016

Impairment 
loss 
provisions 
£m

–

–

–

–

(0.1)

(0.1)

Gross 
£m

15.5

1.3

0.5

0.3

0.3

17.9

Gross 
£m

6.8

0.5

0.4

0.1

0.1

7.9

Total 
£m

15.5

1.3

0.5

0.3

0.2

17.8

Total 
£m 

6.8

0.5

0.4

0.1

–

7.8

Liquidity risk
Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group will not be able to meet its financial obligations as they fall due. The Group’s 
approach to managing liquidity is to hold cash and cash equivalents and maintain undrawn committed facilities at a level 
sufficient to ensure that the Group has available funds to meet its liabilities as they become due. Further details of the 
Group’s treasury policies can be found in the Financial review on pages 18 to 21.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

26. Financial risk management continued
Liquidity risk continued
Contractual maturities of non-derivative financial liabilities
The non-derivative financial liabilities for the Group and the Company at 31 December were:

Group

2017 
£m 

Company

2016 
£m

 2017 
£m 

2016 
£m

Current liabilities:

Trade and other payables (excluding derivatives)

20.9

25.6

23.8

22.0

Non-current liabilities:

Interest-bearing loans and borrowings

0.9

7.9

0.9

7.9

The maturities of the Interest-bearing loans and borrowings are disclosed in note 20. Further details relating to the 
committed borrowing facilities of the Group can be found in the Financial review on pages 18 to 21.

Trade and other payables shown as current liabilities are expected to mature within six months of the statement of 
financial position date.

The contractual maturities of forward foreign exchange contracts that the Group and Company had committed at 
31 December are shown in the Foreign currency risk section in this note.

Market risk
Market risk is the risk that changes in market prices, such as interest rates and foreign exchange rates, will affect 
the Group’s income or the value of its holdings of financial instruments. Exposure to interest rate and currency risks 
arises in the normal course of the Group’s business. The Group does not trade in financial instruments and enters into 
derivatives (principally forward foreign exchange contracts) solely for the purpose of minimising currency exposure 
on sales or purchases in other than the functional currencies of its various operations.

The Group’s treasury policies are explained in the Financial review on pages 18 to 21.

Interest rate risk
Cash and cash equivalents
The cash profile at 31 December was:

Group

Currency:

Sterling

Canadian dollar

US dollar

Euro

Czech koruna

Brazilian real

Other

2017

Cash on 
which no 
interest 
received 
£m

–

–

1.1

–

–

–

–

1.1

Cash at 
floating  
rates 
£m

16.5

5.6

2.4

4.6

–

–

0.1

29.2

2016

 Cash on 
which no 
interest 
received 
£m

0.5

–

0.6

0.3

–

–

0.1

1.5

Cash at 
floating 
rates 
£m

2.7

0.4

0.1

3.0

(0.3)

1.3

–

7.2

Total 
£m

16.5

5.6

3.5

4.6

–

–

0.1

30.3

Total  
£m

3.2

0.4

0.7

3.3

(0.3)

1.3

0.1

8.7

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Company

Currency:

Sterling

Canadian dollar

US dollar

Euro

2017

 Cash on 
which no 
interest 
received 
£m

–

–

–

–

–

Cash at 
floating 
rates 
£m

16.3

0.5

1.1

2.8

20.7

2016

Cash on 
which no 
interest 
received 
£m

–

–

–

–

–

Cash at 
floating 
rates 
£m

2.7

–

(0.2)

0.2

2.7

Total 
£m

16.3

0.5

1.1

2.8

20.7

All cash surplus to immediate operational requirements is placed on deposit at floating rates of interest.

Interest-bearing loans and borrowings
The profile of interest-bearing loans and borrowings at 31 December was:

Group and Company

Currency:

Sterling

2017

Borrowings 
at floating 
rates 
£m

Borrowings 
at fixed 
rates 
£m

–

–

0.9

0.9

Borrowings 
at floating 
rates 
£m

2016

Borrowings 
at fixed 
rates 
£m

7.0

7.0

0.9

0.9

Total 
£m

0.9

0.9

Total 
£m

2.7

–

(0.2)

0.2

2.7

Total 
£m

7.9

7.9

The borrowings at fixed rates in sterling are the fixed cumulative preference shares which are explained in more detail 
in note 20.

The floating rate borrowings were based on interest rates at UK base rate, UK London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) 
and relevant national equivalents.

Sensitivity to interest rate risk
If interest rates had been 100 basis points higher/lower throughout the period, net financial expense (excluding on 
pension scheme balances) for the Group would have increased/decreased by £0.1m (2016: £0.1m). This analysis 
assumes that all other variables, in particular foreign currency rates, remain constant and considers the effect of 
financial instruments with variable interest rates. The analysis is performed on the same basis as for the year ended 
31 December 2016.

Foreign currency risk
The majority of the Group’s operations are outside of the UK, and therefore a significant portion of its business is 
conducted overseas in currencies other than sterling. As explained on page 22, foreign currency risk is one of the 
principal risks and uncertainties to which the Group is exposed. The Group is exposed to both transaction and 
translation risk.

Transactions in foreign currency are translated at the foreign exchange rate ruling at the date of the transaction. 
Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies at the statement of financial position date are 
translated at the foreign exchange rate ruling at that date. Foreign exchange differences arising on translation are 
recognised in the income statement.

The revenues and expenses of foreign operations are translated at an average rate for the period.

The assets and liabilities of foreign operations are translated at foreign exchange rates ruling at the statement of 
financial position date and foreign exchange differences are taken directly to the translation reserve.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

26. Financial risk management continued
The following exchange rates (relative to sterling), which are significant to the Group, applied during the period:

US dollar

Canadian dollar

Euro

Czech koruna

Brazilian real

Average rate

Closing rate

2017

1.30

1.69

1.15

30.17

4.16

2016

1.36

1.80

1.23

33.26

4.78

2017

1.35

1.69

1.13

28.76

4.49

2016

1.24

1.66

1.17

31.59

4.04

Forward foreign exchange contracts
The Group enters into forward foreign exchange contracts solely for the purpose of minimising currency exposures on 
sale and purchase transactions. The Group classifies its forward foreign exchange contracts used for hedging as cash 
flow hedges and states them at fair value.

Fair values
The fair value of forward foreign exchange contracts at 31 December was:

Cash flow hedges

Gain

Loss

Group

Company

2017 
£m

0.3

–

0.3

2016 
£m

0.1

(0.3)

(0.2)

2017 
£m

–

–

–

2016 
£m

– 

(0.1)

(0.1)

The fair value is the gain/loss on all open forward foreign exchange contracts at the period end. These amounts are 
based on the market values of equivalent instruments at the period end date and all relate to those forward foreign 
exchange contracts that have been designated as effective cash flow hedges under IAS 39 Financial instruments: 
recognition and measurement.

There were no open forward foreign exchange contracts, as at either 31 December 2017 or 2016, that had been 
designated as fair value hedges under IAS 39 Financial instruments: recognition and measurement.

During the period a credit of £0.4m for the Group (2016: £0.7m) and £0.1m for the Company (2016: £0.6m) was 
recognised in the Statements of comprehensive income in respect of cash flow hedges.

Contractual maturity date and future cash flows
The contractual maturity date and period when cash flows are expected to occur in relation to open forward foreign 
exchange contracts at 31 December were:

2017

2016

Less than  
six months 
£m

Between six 
and twelve 
months 
£m

Between 
twelve and 
twenty-four 
months 
£m

(1.9)

11.8

9.9

(0.3)

0.8

0.5

–

0.2

0.2

Less than  
six months 
£m

Between six 
and twelve 
months 
£m

(2.3) 

9.4

7.1

(0.3)

4.8

4.5

Between 
twelve and 
twenty-four 
months 
£m

– 

0.3

0.3

Total 
£m

(2.2)

12.8

10.6

Total 
£m

(2.6) 

14.5

11.9

Group

Outflow

Inflow

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83

2017

2016

Less than  
six months 
£m

Between six 
and twelve 
months 
£m

(12.9)

15.9

3.0

(1.1)

1.4

0.3

Between 
twelve and 
twenty-four 
months 
£m

(0.2)

0.2

–

Less than  
six months 
£m

Between six 
and twelve 
months 
£m

(9.1)

9.4

0.3

 (3.9)

5.0

1.1

Between 
twelve and 
twenty-four 
months 
£m

– 

0.3 

0.3

Total 
£m

(14.2)

17.5

3.3

Total 
£m

(13.0)

14.7 

1.7

Company

Outflow

Inflow

Currency profile
The currency profiles at 31 December of Cash and cash equivalents and Interest-bearing loans and borrowings are 
shown within the interest rate risk section in this note.

The main functional currency of the Group is sterling. The following analysis of financial assets and liabilities (excluding 
net funds/debt) shows the Group and Company exposure after the effects of forward foreign exchange contracts used 
to manage currency exposure.

The amounts shown represent the transactional exposures that give rise to net currency gains and losses which are 
recognised in the Consolidated income statement. Such exposures represent the financial assets and liabilities of the 
Group and the Company that are not denominated in the functional currency of the business involved.

Group

Functional currency:

Sterling

Canadian dollar

Euro

Czech koruna

Brazilian real

Company

Functional currency:

Sterling

US dollar 
£m

2017

Euro 
£m

Total 
£m

US dollar 
£m

–

2.0

–

–

–

2.0

0.1

0.7

(0.1)

–

–

0.7

0.1

2.7

(0.1)

–

–

2.7

0.3

0.6

–

0.1

(0.1)

0.9

2016

Euro 
£m

0.3

–

–

–

–

0.3

US dollar 
£m

2017

Euro 
£m

Total 
£m

US dollar 
£m

2016

Euro 
£m

Total 
£m

0.6

0.6

–

0.1

(0.1)

1.2

Total 
£m

–

–

–

0.3

0.4

0.7

Sensitivity to foreign currency risk
Average exchange rates are used to translate the profits of foreign operations in the Consolidated income statement. 
If sterling had been 10% stronger against all foreign currencies during the year, the effect of this on the average 
exchange rates used to translate profits would have increased Group profit for the year by £0.6m (2016: £0.1m). 
If sterling had been 10% weaker against all foreign currencies during the year, the effect of this on the average 
exchange rates used to translate profits would have decreased Group profit for the year by £0.5m (2016: £0.1m).

If sterling had been 10% stronger against all foreign currencies at 31 December 2017, Group equity would have 
reduced by £0.4m (2016: £0.8m). Conversely, if sterling had been 10% weaker against all foreign currencies at 
31 December 2017, Group equity would have increased by £0.3m (2016: £0.9m). This analysis assumes that all 
other variables remain constant.

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83

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

26. Financial risk management continued
Fair values
The fair value of borrowings at fixed rates for both the Group and the Company at 31 December 2017 is £0.8m  
(2016: £0.8m) and has been calculated by discounting the expected future cash flows at prevailing interest rates.

There are no other significant differences between book and fair values for any of the other financial assets or liabilities 
included in either the Group or Company Statement of financial position.

Capital management
Capital comprises total equity as shown in the Statements of financial position. The Group’s policy is to maintain a 
strong capital base so as to maintain investor, creditor and market confidence and to sustain the future development of 
the business. The Group manages its capital structure and makes adjustments to it in light of the economic conditions. 
To maintain or adjust the capital structure, the Group may adjust the dividend payment to shareholders, return capital to 
shareholders or issue new shares.

The Group monitors capital through measures of earnings per share (see note 11), return on capital employed (profit 
for the period divided by average equity) and tangible net worth (total equity before intangible assets and employee 
benefits, net of tax). There were no changes to the Group’s approach to capital management during the year and 
neither the Company nor any of its subsidiaries are subject to externally imposed capital requirements. 

27. Operating leases
Non-cancellable operating lease rentals are payable as follows:

Less than one year

Between one and five years

More than five years

Group

Company

2017 
£m

0.7

3.0

1.0

4.7

2016 
£m

0.5

 0.6

 –

1.1

2017 
£m

–

0.1 

–

0.1

2016 
£m

–

0.1

–

0.1

The Group leases a number of manufacturing and service facilities under operating leases. The lease terms have the 
option to renew at the end of the lease term. 

During the year £0.6m was recognised as an expense in the Consolidated income statement in respect of operating 
leases of the continuing operations (2016: £0.7m). In addition, £0.4m (2016: £0.7m) was recognised as an expense in the 
Consolidated income statement in respect of operating leases of the discontinued operations.

28. Capital commitments

Capital investment contracted but not provided for

29. Contingent liabilities

Group

Company

2017 
£m

–

2016 
£m

0.1

2017 
£m

–

2016 
£m

–

Group

2017 
£m

Company

2016 
£m

2017 
£m

2016 
£m

Contingent liabilities in respect of guarantees and indemnities 
related to sales and other contracts

2.1

2.0

3.4

3.3

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85

30. Discontinued operations
On 1 August 2017 the Group sold its Instrumentation & Tobacco Machinery (I&TM) business. The results of the I&TM 
business are presented as results from a discontinued operation in the Consolidated income statement and the 
comparative information has been re-presented accordingly. The table below shows the results of the discontinued 
operations included in the Group’s Consolidated income statement and the Group’s Statement of cash flow.

Income statement for the period to 1 August 2017

Revenue from trading activities 

Costs from trading activities

Operating profit from trading activities

Financial income from trading activities

Profit before tax from trading activities

Income tax expense from trading activities

Profit after tax from trading activities

Costs incurred on disposal

Loss on disposal of net assets

Tax on disposal of net assets

Foreign exchange gains recycled through income statement

(Loss)/profit after tax

Cash flow statement for the period to 1 August 2017

Operating activities

Operating profit

Non-underlying items included in operating profit

Amortisation

Depreciation

Net movements in working capital

Cash flows from operations before reorganisation

Reorganisation costs paid

Cash flows from operating activities

Investing activities

Cash flows from investing activities 

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents

2017 
£m

21.1

2016 
£m

38.6

(19.1) 

(36.4)

2.0

0.1

2.1

(0.2)

1.9

(1.1)

(0.8)

(1.9)

1.1

(0.8)

2017 
£m

2.0

–

0.6

0.4

1.4

4.4

–

4.4

(0.3)

4.1

2.2

0.1

2.3

(0.5)

1.8

–

–

–

–

1.8

2016 
£m

2.2

0.1

1.2

0.6

0.2

 4.3

(0.1)

4.2

(0.9)

3.3

In 2017 the loss per ordinary share from discontinued operations was 3.8p (2016: 9.0p earnings) and the diluted loss per 
ordinary share from discontinued operations was 3.8p (2016: 9.0p earnings).

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes to the accounts 
continued

31. Related parties
Transactions with key management personnel
The compensation of key management personnel is disclosed in the Remuneration report on pages 30 to 37. 

Identity of related parties
The Company has a related party relationship with its subsidiaries (see note 32), directors and the UK and USA defined 
benefit pension schemes. In the course of normal operations, related party transactions entered into by the Group have 
been contracted on an arm’s-length basis.

Details regarding transactions involving the directors and their remuneration can be found in the Remuneration report 
on pages 30 to 37.

The Group recharges the UK defined benefit pension scheme with the costs of administration incurred by the Group. 
The total amount recharged in the year to 31 December 2017 was £0.2m (2016: £0.2m).

32. Group entities
All intra-group related party transactions and outstanding balances are eliminated in the preparation of the Consolidated 
financial statements of the Group and therefore in accordance with IAS 24 Related party disclosures are not disclosed.

Subsidiary undertakings
Details of all subsidiary undertakings are shown below. Principal subsidiary undertakings are shown on page 88. 
Subsidiary undertakings are, unless otherwise shown in brackets below, registered in England and Wales. Unless 
otherwise specified below, all subsidiaries are 100% owned by the Company.

Principal subsidiary undertakings

Registered office

6500 Kitimat Road, Unit 1, Mississauga, 
Ontario LN5 2B8, Canada

Edisonstraat 14, 6604 BV Wijchen, 
The Netherlands

8 Burn Road, #09-01 Trivex, 
Singapore 369977

Subsidiary undertakings

Langen Packaging Inc (Canada)

Langenpac BV (Netherlands)

Langen Pte. Ltd (Singapore)

Subsidiary undertakings registered at Mpac Group plc Registered Office

Arista Laboratories Europe Limited

Mpac Machine Company Limited

Molmac Engineering Limited 

Hartsvale Limited

Mpac Machinery Limited

Thrissell Limited

Mpac Corporate Services Limited

Mpac Overseas Holdings Limited 

Mpac ITCM Limited

Mpac Tobacco Machinery Limited

Overseas subsidiary undertakings

Registered office

6500 Kitimat Road, Unit 1, Mississauga, 
Ontario LN5 2B8, Canada

Subsidiary undertakings

1456074 Ontario Inc (Canada)

1470 East Parham Road, Richmond, 
Virginia 23228-2300, USA

Mpac Corporation (USA) 
ITCM North America Inc (USA)

Mpac Delaware, Inc (USA)

Mpac Laboratories, Inc (USA)

Mpac Machine Company, Inc (USA)

SASIB Corporation of America (USA)

Mpac Richmond, Inc (USA)

Leningradsky prospekt, 1 bldg. 8 room 1, 
125040 Moscow, Russia

Molins Tobacco CIS (69% owned by 
Mpac Group plc) (Russia)

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87

During the year ended 31 December 2017 the Company received interest income from subsidiary undertakings of £nil 
(2016: £nil) and management fees of £0.7m (2016: £0.6m).

At 31 December 2017 amounts owed by subsidiary undertakings to the Company were £0.1m (2016: £2.0m) and 
amounts owed by the Company to subsidiary undertakings were £16.5m (2016: £10.2m). The amounts owed by 
subsidiary undertakings to the Company are stated after a provision of £10.2m (2016: £10.5m) representing amounts 
owed to the Company which are no longer considered recoverable.

At 31 December 2017 investments in subsidiaries by the Company were £47.4m (2016: £50.6m).

33. Accounting estimates and judgements
The development, selection and disclosure of the Group’s critical accounting policies and estimates, and the application 
of these policies and estimates, are considered as part of the remit of the Audit Committee.

Estimates
Estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis, with revisions recognised in the year in which 
the estimates are revised and in any future years affected. The areas involving significant risk resulting in a material 
adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are as follows:

Pension accounting
Changes to key assumptions used for calculating the net pension asset/liability of the Group can have a significant 
impact on the accounting valuation of the Group’s defined benefit pension schemes. The key assumptions used in 
calculating the net pension asset/liability for the Group are disclosed in note 24. The value of the schemes’ liabilities is 
particularly sensitive to the discount, inflation and mortality rates used. An analysis of the impact on the net pension 
asset/liability to changes in these assumptions is also disclosed in note 24.

Construction contracts
The timing of revenue recognition on construction contracts is based on the assessed stage of completion of contract 
activity at the statement of financial position date. The assessed stage of completion is based on an estimate of the 
labour costs and hours expended on each contract at the statement of financial position date as a proportion of 
estimated total labour costs and hours on each contract.

The attributable profit recognised on construction contracts is based on the stage of completion and the overall 
contract profitability after taking account of uncertainties. Full provision is made for any estimated losses to completion 
of contracts. 

Judgements
Management do not believe there are any significant judgements made when applying the Group’s accounting policies. 

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTFive year record

Revenue1

Underlying operating profit/(loss)2 

Non-underlying items1

Operating profit/(loss)1 

Net financing expense1 

Profit/(loss) before tax1 

Taxation1

Profit/(loss) for the period from continuing operations 

(Loss)/profit for the period from discontinued operations

Profit/(loss) for the period

Underlying operating return on sales2

Underlying earnings/(loss) per ordinary share2

Basic earnings/(loss) per ordinary share

Dividends per ordinary share in respect of the year

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment and investment property

Inventories

Trade and other receivables (including taxation)

Employee benefits

Trade and other payables (including taxation 
and provisions)

Net funds/(debt)

Net assets

Net assets per ordinary share

Ordinary shares in issue (000’s)

1  From continuing operations.
2  Before non-underlying items and discontinued operations.

2017 
£m

53.4 

1.3

3.3

4.6 

(0.3) 

4.3 

(1.9)

2.4

(0.8)

1.6

2.4%

4.2p

20.6p

–

0.9

4.8

2.4

22.7

11.4

2016 
£m

41.5

(1.2)

(1.7)

(2.9) 

(0.2) 

(3.1)

0.7

(2.4) 

 1.8

(0.6)

(3.1)%

(6.0)p

(3.3)p

1.25p

15.2

9.3

13.0

29.3

(2.2)

(28.8)

(30.0)

13.4 

29.4

42.8

34.6 

0.8

35.4

2015 
£m

 51.0 

 2.5

(0.8)

1.7 

(0.8) 

0.9

0.1

1.0 

 (5.1) 

(4.1)

5.0%

10.8p

(20.9)p

4.0p

14.9

8.8

15.1

22.1

4.0

(25.1)

39.8 

(3.2)

36.6

2014 
£m

40.5

(0.1) 

(0.7)

(0.8) 

(0.4)

 (1.2) 

0.2

(1.0)

0.7 

(0.3)

(0.3)%

(2.1)p

(1.3)p

5.5p

15.7

12.1

18.5

32.6

2013 
£m

 44.3 

(1.1)

(0.8)

(1.9)

 (0.9)

(2.8)

1.0

 (1.8)

5.3

3.5

(2.5)%

(3.8)p

18.0p

5.5p

15.2

12.0

18.5

27.5

(20.6)

(5.6)

(30.3)

28.0 

(2.1)

25.9

(32.3)

35.3

5.2

40.5

212p

176p

181p

128p

201p

20,172

20,172

20,172

20,172

20,172

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Principal divisions and subsidiaries

The divisions and subsidiary undertakings shown include those which principally affect the profits and net assets of the 
Group as at the date of this report. Overseas companies operate and are incorporated in the countries in which they are 
based. In all cases the class of shares held is ordinary equity shares (or equivalent) and the proportion held is 100% 
unless otherwise indicated. Shares in the UK companies are held directly by Mpac Group plc and those in the other 
overseas subsidiaries by intermediate holding companies.

Americas
Langen Packaging Inc.
6500 Kitimat Road, Unit 1,  
Mississauga,  
Ontario  
L5N 2B8,  
Canada

Tel: +1 905 670 7200 
E-mail: info.americas@mpac-group.com

Europe, Middle East & Africa
Langenpac BV
Edisonstraat 14,  
6604 BV Wijchen,  
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 648 6655 
E-mail: info.emea@mpac-group.com

Mpac Langen
13 Westwood Way,  
Westwood Business Park,  
Coventry  
CV4 8HS,  
UK

Tel: +44 (0)2476 421100 
E-mail: info.coventry@mpac-group.com

Asia Pacific
Langen PTE
8 Burn Road, 
#09–01 Trivex, 
Singapore 369977

Tel: +65 63 39 96 66 
E-mail: info.asia@mpac-group.com

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotice of Annual General meeting

Notice is hereby given that the one hundred and sixth Annual General Meeting (the Meeting) of Mpac Group plc 
(formerly Molins PLC) (the Company) will be held at the Company’s offices at 13 Westwood Way, Westwood Business 
Park, Coventry, CV4 8HS on Thursday 19 April 2018 at 12 noon to consider and, if thought appropriate, to pass the 
following resolutions, of which resolutions 1 to 10 will be proposed as ordinary resolutions and resolutions 11 to 14 will be 
proposed as special resolutions: 

Ordinary resolutions
Report and Accounts
1.  To receive the audited annual accounts of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2017 together with the 

directors’ report and the auditors’ report on those annual accounts.

Directors
2. 
 To elect Mr J R Haughey as a director.
3.  To re-elect Mr J L Davies as a director.
4.  To re-elect Mr A J Kitchingman as a director. 
5.  To re-elect Mr P J Moorhouse as a director. 
6.  To re-elect Dr A Steels as a director.
7.  To approve the Remuneration report set out on pages 30 to 37 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2017.

Auditors
8. 

 To re-appoint KPMG LLP as auditors of the Company to hold office from the conclusion of this Meeting until the 
conclusion of the next AGM at which accounts are laid before the Company.

Remuneration of Auditors
9. 

 To authorise the Audit Committee to determine the remuneration of the auditors.

Directors’ authority to allot shares
10.  To generally and unconditionally authorise the directors pursuant to and in accordance with Section 551 of the 

Companies Act 2006 (the Act), in substitution for all previous authorities to the extent unused, to exercise all the 
powers of the Company to allot shares in the Company and to grant rights to subscribe for or to convert any security 
into shares in the Company

a) 

b) 

 up to an aggregate nominal amount of £1,680,000 (representing approximately one third of the total ordinary 
share capital in issue at 9 March 2018, being the latest date prior to publication of this notice of meeting); and
 comprising equity securities (as defined in Section 560 (1) of the Act) up to a further aggregate nominal value 
of £1,680,000 in connection with an offer by way of a rights issue, such authorities to expire at the conclusion 
of the 2019 AGM or if earlier, at close of business on 19 July 2019, save that the Company may before such 
expiry make an offer or agreement which would or might require shares to be allotted or rights to subscribe 
for or convert any security into shares to be granted after the authority ends.

For the purposes of this Resolution, ‘rights issue’ means an offer to:
a) 
b) 

shareholders in proportion (as nearly as may be practicable) to their existing holdings; and 
 holders of other equity securities if this is required by the rights of those securities or, if the directors consider 
it necessary, as permitted by the rights of those securities;

to subscribe for further securities by means of the issue of a renounceable letter (or other negotiable document) 
which may be traded for a period before payment for the securities is due, but subject in both cases to such 
exclusions or other arrangements as the directors consider necessary or appropriate in relation to treasury shares, 
fractional entitlements, record dates or legal, regulatory or practical problems in, or under the laws of, any territory.

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Special resolutions
Disapplication of pre-emption rights
11.  That if resolution 10 is passed, the Board be authorised to allot equity securities (as defined in the Companies Act 
2006) for cash under the authority given by that resolution and/or to sell ordinary shares held by the Company as 
treasury shares for cash as if section 561 of the Companies Act 2006 did not apply to any such allotment or sale, 
such authority to be limited:

a)  to allotments for rights issues and other pre-emptive issues; and

b)  to the allotment of equity securities or sale of treasury shares (otherwise than under paragraph (a) above) up to a 
nominal amount of £252,000, such authority to expire at the end of the next AGM of the Company (or, if earlier, 
at the close of business on 19 July 2019) but, in each case, prior to its expiry the Company may make offers, and 
enter into agreements, which would, or might, require equity securities to be allotted (and treasury shares to be 
sold) after the authority expires and the Board may allot equity securities (and sell treasury shares) under any 
such offer or agreement as if the authority had not expired.

12.  That if resolution 10 is passed, the Board be authorised in addition to any authority granted under resolution 11 to 

allot equity securities (as defined in the Companies Act 2006) for cash under the authority given by that resolution 
and/or to sell ordinary shares held by the Company as treasury shares for cash as if section 561 of the Companies 
Act 2006 did not apply to any such allotment or sale, such authority to be:

a) 

limited to the allotment of equity securities or sale of treasury shares up to a nominal amount of £252,000; and

b)  used only for the purposes of financing (or refinancing, if the authority is to be used within six months after the 
original transaction) a transaction which the Board of the Company determines to be an acquisition or other 
capital investment of a kind contemplated by the Statement of Principles on Dis-applying Pre-Emption Rights 
most recently published by the Pre-Emption Group prior to the date of this notice, such authority to expire at the 
end of the next AGM of the Company (or, if earlier, at the close of business on 19 July 2019 save that, in each case, 
the Company may before such expiry make offers, and enter into agreements, which would, or might, require 
equity securities to be allotted (and treasury shares to be sold) after the authority expires and the Board may 
allot equity securities (and sell treasury shares) under any such offer or agreement as if the authority had not 
expired.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotice of meeting 
continued

Authority to purchase of own shares
13. That the Company be generally and unconditionally authorised for the purpose of Section 701 of the Act to make 
market purchases (as defined in Section 693 of the Act) of ordinary shares of 25 pence each in the capital of the 
Company (‘ordinary shares’) provided that:

a)  the maximum number of ordinary shares hereby authorised to be purchased is 3,000,000;

b)  the minimum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for such ordinary shares is 25 pence per share, 

being the nominal amount thereof;

c)  the maximum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for such ordinary shares shall be an amount equal 

to the higher of: (i) 5% above the average of the middle market quotations for such shares taken from The 
London Stock Exchange Daily Official List for the five business days immediately preceding the day on which the 
purchase is made; and (ii) the price of the last independent trade of an ordinary share and the highest current 
independent bid for an ordinary share as derived from the London Stock Exchange Trading System (SETS); and

d)  the authority hereby conferred shall (unless previously renewed or revoked) expire at the end of the 2019 AGM, 
save that the Company may before such expiry make a contract or agreement to make a market purchase of its 
own ordinary shares which will or may be executed wholly or partly after the expiry of such authority and the 
Company may purchase such shares as if the authority conferred hereby had not expired.

Notice of general meetings
14.  That a general meeting of the Company, other than annual general meetings of the Company, may be called on not 

less than 14 clear days’ notice. 

By order of the Board

Prism Cosec Limited
Secretary 
19 March 2018

Registered in England and Wales 
No. 00124855

Registered office:  
13 Westwood Way 
Westwood Business Park 
Coventry 
CV4 8HS

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Notes relating to the Notice
Entitlement to attend and vote
1.  Entitlement to attend and vote at the meeting, and the number of votes which may be cast at the meeting, will be 

determined by reference to the Company’s register of members as at close of business on Tuesday 17 April 2018 or, 
if the meeting is adjourned, close of business on the day which is two days’ prior to the adjourned meeting. In each 
case, changes to the register of members after such time will be disregarded in determining the rights of any person 
to attend and vote at the AGM.

Appointment of proxies
2. 

If you are a member of the Company at the time set out in note 1 above, you are entitled to appoint a proxy to 
exercise all or any of your rights to attend, speak and vote at the meeting and you should have received a proxy form 
with this notice of meeting. You can only appoint a proxy using the procedures set out in these notes and the notes to 
the proxy form.

3.  A proxy does not need to be a member of the Company but must attend the meeting to represent you. Details of how 
to appoint the Chairman of the meeting or another person as your proxy using the proxy form are set out in the notes 
to the proxy form. If you wish your proxy to speak on your behalf at the meeting you will need to appoint your own 
choice of proxy (not the Chairman) and give your instructions directly to them. 

4.  You may appoint more than one proxy provided each proxy is appointed to exercise rights attached to different 

shares. You may not appoint more than one proxy to exercise rights attached to any one share. When appointing 
more than one proxy, complete a separate proxy form in relation to each appointment. The proxy form may be 
photocopied or additional proxy forms may be obtained by contacting the Company’s Registrar, Link Asset Services 
on 0371 664 0300. Calls cost 12p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge. Lines are open between 
9.00 am – 5.30 p.m., Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in England and Wales. State clearly on each proxy 
form the number of shares in relation to which the proxy is appointed.

5.  In the case of a joint shareholding, the vote of the first named holder shown in the register of members, whether 

tendered in person or by proxy, shall be accepted to the exclusion of the votes of the other joint holders. 

6.  The right to appoint a proxy does not apply to persons whose shares are held on their behalf by another person and 
who have been nominated to receive communications from the Company in accordance with Section 146 of the 
Companies Act 2006 (“nominated persons”). Nominated persons may have a right under an agreement with the 
member who holds the shares on their behalf to be appointed (or to have someone else appointed) as a proxy. 
Alternatively, if nominated persons do not have such a right, or do not wish to exercise it, they may have a right under 
such an agreement to give instructions to the person holding the shares as to the exercise of voting rights.

7.  To be valid, a proxy form must be received by post or (during business hours only) by hand at the offices of the 

Company’s Registrar, Link Asset Services, PXS1, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4ZF, no later than 
12 noon on Tuesday 17 April 2018 (or if the meeting is adjourned, no later than 48 hours before the time of any 
adjourned meeting). 

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotice of meeting 
continued

Notes relating to the Notice continued
Corporate representatives 
8.  A member which is a company can appoint one or more corporate representatives who may exercise on its behalf all 

of its powers as a member provided that they do not do so in relation to the same shares. Members considering the 
appointment of a corporate representative should check their legal position, the Company’s articles of association 
and the relevant provision of the Companies Act 2006.

Questions at the meeting
9.  Any member attending the meeting has the right to ask questions. The Company must cause to be answered any 

such question relating to the business being dealt with at the meeting but no such answer need be given if (a) to do 
so would interfere unduly with the preparation for the meeting or involve the disclosure of confidential information, 
(b) the answer has already been given on a website in the form of an answer to a question, or (c) it is undesirable in 
the interests of the Company or the good order of the meeting that the question be answered. 

Issued shares and total voting rights
10. As at 9 March 2018 (being the latest practicable date prior to publication of this notice), the Company’s issued share 
capital consisted of 20,171,540 ordinary shares of 25 pence each. Each ordinary share carries one vote and the total 
voting rights in the Company as at 9 March 2018 are therefore 20,171,540. 

Website giving information regarding the meeting
11.  A copy of this notice and other information required by section 311A of the Companies Act 2006 is available on the 

Company’s website at http://www.mpac-group.com.

Communication
12.  Members may not use any electronic address provided in this document or any related documents (including the 

form of proxy) to communicate with the Company for any purpose other than those expressly stated. 

13. Except as provided above, shareholders who have general queries about the AGM should either call the Registrar’s 
helpline on 0371 664 0300 or write to the Registrar, Link Asset Services, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent 
BR3 4TU. No other method of communication will be accepted.

Documents on display
14.  Copies of the executive Directors’ service contracts and letters of appointment of the Non-Executive Directors may 
be inspected during normal business hours on any weekday (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays excepted) at 
the registered office of the Company at 13 Westwood Way, Westwood Business Park, Coventry, CV4 8HS up to and 
including the date of the AGM and for 15 minutes before, and during, the Meeting.

After the meeting
15. Members will have the opportunity to meet the directors of the Company.

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For CREST members only:
16. CREST members who wish to appoint a proxy or proxies through the CREST electronic proxy appointment service 

may do so for the meeting and any adjournment(s) thereof by using the procedures described in the CREST Manual. 
CREST Personal Members or other CREST sponsored members, and those CREST members who have appointed a 
voting service provider(s) should refer to their CREST sponsor or voting service provider(s), who will be able to take 
the appropriate action on their behalf. 

17.  To be valid, the appropriate CREST message (a “CREST Proxy Instruction”) must be properly authenticated in 

accordance with Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited’s specifications and must contain the information required for such 
instructions, as described in the CREST Manual (available via euroclear.com/CREST). The message, regardless of 
whether it relates to the appointment of a proxy or to an amendment to the instruction given to a previously 
appointed proxy must, in order to be valid, be transmitted so as to be received by Link Asset Services (RA10) by the 
latest time for receipt of proxy appointments specified above. For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be 
the time (as determined by the timestamp applied to the message by the CREST Applications Host) from which Link 
Asset Services is able to retrieve the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed by CREST. After this 
time, any change of instructions to proxies appointed through CREST should be communicated to the appointee 
through other means.

18. CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers should note that 

Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited does not make available special procedures in CREST for any particular messages. 
Normal system timings and limitations will therefore apply in relation to the input of CREST Proxy Instructions. It is 
the responsibility of the CREST member concerned to take (or, if the CREST member is a CREST personal member 
or sponsored member or has appointed a voting service provider(s), to procure that his or her CREST sponsor or 
voting service provider(s) take(s)) such action as shall be necessary to ensure that a message is transmitted by 
means of CREST by any particular time. In this connection, CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST 
sponsors or voting service providers are referred, in particular, to those sections of the CREST Manual concerning 
practical limitations of the CREST system and timings.

19. The Company may treat as invalid a CREST Proxy Instruction in the circumstances set out in Regulation 35(5)(a) of 

the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 2001.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotice of meeting 
continued

Explanatory notes on the resolutions
Resolutions 1 to 10 are ordinary resolutions; resolutions 11 to 14 are special resolutions. To be passed, ordinary 
resolutions require more than 50% of votes cast to be in favour of the resolution whilst special resolutions require at 
least 75% of the votes cast to be in favour of the resolution.

Ordinary Resolutions
To receive the Annual Report and Accounts 2017
Resolution 1 is a standard resolution. The Companies Act 2006 requires the directors to lay before the Company in a 
general meeting copies of the Company’s annual accounts, and the directors’ report and auditor’s report on those 
accounts. The Annual Report and Accounts 2017, which includes this Notice of Annual General Meeting, will be available 
online at www.mpac-group.com

Election and re-election of directors
Resolution 2 seeks approval for the election of Mr J R Haughey, who was appointed as Group Finance Director on 
2 October 2017. This year, in accordance with best practice in corporate governance, all the remaining directors 
are standing for re-election. Resolutions 3 to 6 seek approval for the re-election of the remaining directors. 
Biographical information for each of the directors is provided on page 27 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2017. 

The Board has no hesitation in recommending the election or re-election of the directors to shareholders. In making 
these recommendations, the Board confirms that it has given careful consideration to the Board’s balance of skills, 
knowledge and experience and is satisfied that each of the directors putting themselves forward for election or 
re-election has sufficient time to discharge their duties effectively, taking into account their other commitments.

Remuneration report 
Resolution 7 seeks shareholders’ approval for the Directors’ Remuneration report, excluding the summary Directors’ 
Remuneration Policy which is set out on pages 30 to 37 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2017, for the year ended 
31 December 2017. The vote is advisory only.

Re-appointment of auditors
The auditors of a company must be appointed or re-appointed at each general meeting at which the accounts are laid. 
Resolution 8 seeks approval to re-appoint KPMG LLP as the Company’s auditors until the conclusion of the next general 
meeting of the Company at which accounts are laid.

Remuneration of auditors
Resolution 9 seeks consent for the directors to determine the remuneration of the auditors. 

Directors’ authority to allot shares
Resolution 10 shareholders to grant the directors authority to allot shares or grant rights to subscribe for or convert 
securities into shares, up to a maximum aggregate nominal value of £3,360,000, which is approximately two-thirds of 
the nominal value of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company as at 9 March 2018, being the latest practicable 
date prior to the publication of this notice. £1,680,000 of this authority is reserved for a fully pre-emptive rights issue. 
This is the maximum permitted amount under best practice corporate governance guidelines. The authority will expire 
at the next Annual General Meeting of the Company or if earlier, at close of business on 19 July 2019. The directors have 
no current intention of exercising such authority and will exercise this power only when they believe that such exercise 
is in the best interests of the shareholders.

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Special resolutions
Disapplication of pre-emption rights
Resolutions 11 and 12 will be proposed as special resolutions, each requiring a majority of 75% of those voting to be in 
favour. If the directors wish to allot new shares and other equity securities, or sell treasury shares, for cash (other than in 
connection with an employee share scheme), company law requires that these shares are offered first to shareholders 
in proportion to their existing holdings. 

Resolution 11 deals with the authority of the directors to allot new shares or other equity securities pursuant to the 
authority given by resolution 10, or sell treasury shares, for cash without the shares or other equity securities first being 
offered to shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings. Such authority shall only be used in connection with a 
pre-emptive offer, or otherwise, up to an aggregate nominal amount of £252,000, being approximately 5% of the total 
issued ordinary share capital of the Company as at 9 March 2018.

The Pre-Emption Group Statement of Principles supports the annual disapplication of pre-emption rights in respect 
of allotments of shares and other equity securities (and sales of treasury shares for cash) representing no more than 
an additional 5% of issued ordinary share capital (exclusive of treasury shares), to be used only in connection with an 
acquisition or specified capital investment. The Pre-Emption Group’s Statement of Principles defines ‘specified capital 
investment’ as meaning one or more specific capital investment related uses for the proceeds of an issuance of equity 
securities, in respect of which sufficient information regarding the effect of the transaction on the Company, the assets 
the subject of the transaction and (where appropriate) the profits attributable to them is made available to shareholders 
to enable them to reach an assessment of the potential return. 

Accordingly, and in line with the template resolutions published by the Pre-Emption Group, resolution 12 seeks to 
authorise the directors to allot new shares and other equity securities pursuant to the authority given by resolution 11, 
or sell treasury shares, for cash up to a further nominal amount of £252,000, being approximately 5% of the total issued 
ordinary share capital of the Company as at 9 March 2018, only in connection with an acquisition or specified capital 
investment which is announced contemporaneously with the allotment, or which has taken place in the preceding 
six-month period and is disclosed in the announcement of the issue. If the authority given in resolution 12 is used, the 
Company will publish details of the placing in its next Annual Report. If these resolutions are passed, the authorities will 
expire at the end of the next AGM or on 19 July 2019, whichever is the earlier. 

The Board considers the authorities in resolutions 11 and 12 to be appropriate in order to allow the Company flexibility to 
finance business opportunities or to conduct a rights issue or other pre-emptive offer without the need to comply with 
the strict requirements of the statutory pre-emption provisions. The Board does not intend to issue more than 7.5% of 
the issued share capital of the Company for cash on a non pre-emptive basis in any rolling three-year period (other than 
in connection with an acquisition or specified capital investment as described in the Pre-Emption Group’s Statement of 
Principles) without prior consultation with shareholders.

Authority to purchase own shares
Resolution 13 seeks authority for the Company to make market purchases of its own ordinary shares up to a maximum 
number of 3,000,000 ordinary shares, representing approximately 15% of the issued ordinary share capital at 9 March 
2018. The authority requested would replace a similar authority granted last year and would expire at the end of the 
2019 AGM, or if earlier, 19 July 2019.

In reaching a decision to purchase ordinary shares, the directors will take account of the Company’s cash resources and 
capital and the general effect of such purchase on the Company’s business. The authority would only be exercised by 
the directors if they considered it to be in the best interests of the shareholders generally and if the purchase could be 
expected to result in an increase in earnings per ordinary share.

Notice of general meetings
Resolution 14 is an annual permission request for general meetings, other than the AGM, to be called on 14 clear days’ 
notice. There is no current intention to hold such a meeting but the directors wish to retain the ability to call a meeting 
on shorter notice if the circumstances should require it. The Companies (Shareholders’ Rights) Regulations 2009 
specify that approval must be sought from shareholders by special resolution at an annual or subsequent general 
meeting and the Company would need to make a means of electronic voting available to all shareholders for any general 
meeting called on less than 21 clear days’ notice. If passed, the resolution would remain valid until the end of the 2019 
AGM, at which it is intended that a similar resolution will be proposed.

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTCorporate information

Registered office
13 Westwood Way  
Westwood Business Park,  
Coventry, 
CV4 8HS

Tel: +44 (0)2476 421100 
Email: ho@mpac-group.com

Registered number 
124855

Secretary
PRISM COSEC LIMITED 
42-50 Hersham Road 
Walton-on-Thames  
Surrey  
KT12 1RZ 

Auditors
KPMG LLP 
Altius House 
One North Fourth Street  
Milton Keynes  
MK9 1NE

Nominated Advisor & Broker
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited  
One New Change 
London  
EC4M 9AF

Registrars
Link Asset Services  
6th Floor 
65 Gresham Street  
London 
EC2V 7NQ

Share price
Available from: 
FT Cityline – tel: +44 (0)905 817 1690  
Certain national newspapers

Website
Further information is available at www.mpac-group.com

Timetable
Annual General Meeting 
19 April 2018

Payment dates for preference dividend
30 June 2018 and 31 December 2018

Half-year announcement
August 2018

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Notes

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CORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORTNotes

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PB

Consultancy, design and production
www.luminous.co.uk

Design and production
www.luminous.co.uk

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13 Westwood Way 
Westwood Business Park 
Coventry CV4 8HS 
Tel: +44 (0)2476 421100

Email: ho@mpac-group.com 
mpac-group.com