Defence industry company XTEK Limited announced that its HighCom Armor Solutions business has received a $2.2 million purchase order for the urgent delivery of its high-end ballistic body armour products from existing inventory to an undisclosed international customer.
This comes as a result of HighCom’s strategic inventory management approach over the past year, aimed at ensuring preparedness for significant orders and mitigating supply chain challenges, the ASX-listed company said in a press release.
In the last year, HighCom has maintained elevated levels of raw materials and finished goods in stock. This approach has enabled them to not only meet the growing demand for their top-tier body armour products in the domestic US market but also be well-prepared for large government orders and any unforeseen surges in demand worldwide.
HighCom’s track record also demonstrates its capacity to manufacture, ship, and deliver substantial orders of NIJ level IV body armour and ballistic helmets with remarkable speed, exemplified by the successful delivery of a USD 33.21 million order to a major European customer.
Furthermore, the HighCom Armor team is actively negotiating multiple substantial orders to meet current customer requirements, which can be effortlessly fulfilled from their stock of finished products.
A distinguishing feature of HighCom is its ability to support continued demand beyond the current order by finishing the production of partially assembled “core” subcomponents into final products.
It can also manufacture new items using its inventory of raw materials and component parts, the company said.
Scott Basham, CEO of XTEK Group, commented on this recent international order, emphasising its value at $2.2 million.
He noted that the order will lead to the rapid dispatch of numerous advanced high-performance body armour products from inventory to meet the pressing delivery needs of the undisclosed international client.
“In parallel with this order, we are also negotiating multiple similarly sized orders, and some even bigger contracts, which if received, could potentially see our entire finished goods inventory of body armour and helmets completely consumed, and then see us potentially needing to ramp up our production lines back to similar levels as we did to supply our advanced lifesaving, high-performance ballistics protection products to Europe previously,” the CEO explained.
Moreover, XTEK provided an important market update regarding the planned closure of its manufacturing and research & development (R&D) operations based in Adelaide, South Australia.
The company is relocating its patented XTclaveTM technology to its HighCom facility located in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
After two years of operating its unique and patented XTclaveTM system at the Adelaide Manufacturing Centre (AMC), XTEK’s Board has decided to close this operation and consolidate these functions at its HighCom Armor production facility in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
“By being physically co-located with our existing US manufacturing operations, we will realise savings and synergies of around $2 million per year, benefit from greater staff and asset utilisation, and see improvement in our overall profitability,” Basham stated.
