John Crane, which is a leading provider of mechanised seals for rotating equipment used in process plants such as oil and gas, had a flat year due to low levels of capital spending in Europe and delayed investment in the oil fields of the Middle East. There was an improvement in sales in Latin America, particularly as the Venezuelan oil industry recovered from the two-month strike of the previous financial year. John Crane's joint venture to service Gazprom in Russia is now well established.

Flex-Tek makes innovative, high performance ducting and hosing for a wide range of aerospace, heating and ventilation, industrial and international domestic equipment customers. We made significant operational improvements, including the purchase of a Mexican plant and the further consolidation of facilities in North America. Flex-Tek now includes Tubular Systems, which was previously within the Aerospace division and primarily supplies flexible and rigid hose to aircraft engine manufacturers. In addition, Tubular Systems manufactures and markets the highly successful and rapidly growing 'Gastite^®' range of flexible hose and fittings in North America.

Marine Systems, the marine electronics and charts business, has a strong underlying order book. It is supplying several state-of-the-art integrated bridge systems, one of which was fitted to the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner, the world's largest passenger ship, launched in January 2004.

DRIVING POTENTIAL
Across various parts of the division, we have taken action to achieve our full potential through improved sales and marketing, and by broadening both our customer base and our geographic boundaries. Particular success has been achieved in selling telecommunications components into defence applications, and we plan to bring special connectors to the European medical equipment market, just as we have done in North America.