Carbon fibre-reinforced ceramic material maker Surface Transforms (LON:SCE) reduced first-half losses but said second-half revenue would be similar to the first.
The group, which serves the aerospace and automotive industries, said pre-tax underlying losses narrowed to £27,000 from £165,000 a year ago and pre-tax losses reduced to £430,000 from £471,000 last time.
In automotive, the company increased retrofit car sales by 60% due to new customers.
Revenue rose to £782,000 from £623,000 last time due to a catch-up in sales delayed in the previous year following a furnace break-down last May, including about £107,000 from increased aircraft customer revenues.
The group, which usually has stronger second half revenue, said it would be flat this year relative to the first half due to the unusually high level of revenue in the first six months.
It expects to start production on a contract with an unidentified aircraft brake systems supplier in the middle of the 2017/18 financial year, which will reach mature sales of £1.3mln a year in 2018/19.
In automotive, the company said new work with automotive makers would necessitate building a new plant with enough space for £15mln of sales as a first step to ramping up to more than £50mln of sales in the medium term.
Chairman David Bundred said: "These are encouraging first half operating results achieved against the background of considerable management time and effort also being devoted to the longer-term strategic development of the company."
Shares rose 0.75p, or 3.8%, to 20.25p in early trading.