Hardide PLC (AIM:HDD) shares rose 28% to 8.53p after the specialist coatings group announced £1.75 million of orders from a major new energy customer in North America, a deal that exceeds earlier internal forecasts.
The contracts will feed into revenue in the first half of the year to September 2026 and have prompted the board to lift expectations for the full year. Hardide said discussions with the customer point to continued demand into 2026 and potentially higher volumes in 2027.
The company can supply the work from spare capacity at its Martinsville plant in Virginia, which it said had been a key factor in winning the business. Its coatings are designed to extend the life of components exposed to heavy wear, such as sleeves used in directional drilling.
Matt Hamblin, chief executive, said: “The growing relationship with this significant new customer is a highly exciting development for Hardide. In the immediate future it will enable us to build on last year's strong revenue growth of over 25%... leveraging existing spare capacity to generate attractive operating margins.”