Barometer Survey


Recovery and growth key themes of DSEI survey


In order to gain an accurate snapshot of the current climate in the defence and security market, DSEI surveyed a number of companies from across the industry on issues such as economic conditions, attitudes to growth and perceived challenges for the year ahead.


W


hen respondents were asked whether they expected


business conditions to get better or worse over the coming six months, over 48% had a positive outlook for 2014. There was also a positive attitude towards profit increases for 2014, with a healthy 78.9% of industry respondents expecting profitability to increase.


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The perceived current state of the industry was highlighted by varying levels of confidence. Responses reflected some caution, with 45.2% viewing the industry as the same as in 2013, and 32.3% perceiving it to be worse. However, an encouraging 22.6% stated that the current industry climate had improved.


Do you expect your profitability to increase for the full year?


78.9% YES


21.1% NO


Growth is integral to the development of the industry, and signs look positive for 2014; 38.7% of those surveyed were confident in overall defence and security growth moving into 2015, with only 6.5% answering negatively. Research and development, new technologies and cyber security were all areas highlighted by respondents as growth areas.


From 33 respondents


Whilst the industry is seeing signs of expansion, inevitably


there are challenges to be faced in the year ahead. Defence budget cuts were the main issue for companies surveyed (80.6%), in addition to the economy (51.6%). Investment was perceived as the least challenging barrier to growth, which suggests that there is some confidence in the defence and security industry’s ability to attract future investment.


Moving into 2014 - 2015, most of the 33 respondents were positive at the prospect of launching new products, 54.8% stated that their planned new product output would not decrease this year and 35.5% actually intended to release more than in 2013. Looking at the current economic climate, there was some caution, with a number of companies describing the outlook as “challenging”. Whilst economic recovery does still provide a challenge for some, the general outlook was quietly optimistic, Dave Middleton of Elma Electronics UK’s statement “In general we have seen the upward trend experienced in 2013 continue into 2014" echoed many of our respondents’ attitudes towards the coming year.


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