Oxford Metrics PLC
09 October 2026
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF REGULATION 2014/596/EU, WHICH IS PART OF DOMESTIC UK LAW PURSUANT TO THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS (SI 2019/310) (UK MAR). UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION (AS DEFINED IN UK MAR) IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
9 October 2026
Oxford Metrics plc
(“Oxford Metrics” or the “Group”)
Trading Update and Strategic Update
Oxford Metrics plc (LSE: OMG), the smart sensing and measurement technology group serving life sciences, entertainment, engineering and manufacturing markets, issues the following unaudited trading update for the 12 months ended 30 September 2026.
As announced on 16 December 2025, Oxford Metrics changed its accounting reference date from 30 September to 31 December. FY26 is therefore an extended 15-month period running from 1 October 2025 to 31 December 2026 (“FY26”). The Group will publish unaudited interim results covering the 12 months ended 30 September 2026 in December 2026.
Trading
Trading since the publication of the interim results (being the six months ended 31 March 2026) on 17 June has been below the Board’s expectations, reflecting changes in Vicon’s established end markets, pressure on research funding and delays to major projects in Industrial Vision and Metrology Systems (“IVMS”).
The Board now expects FY26 revenue (being the 15 months to 31 December 2026) of £47.0m to £51.0m and Adjusted EBIT loss of -£0.5m to -£3.9m, which is below current market expectations**. The range reflects uncertainty over the timing and conversion of a few larger near-term customer opportunities.
The Group is accelerating the strategic priorities set out in its Interim Results and Strategy & Capital Allocation Update on 17 June. In the expectation of continued weakness in some of its core markets, cost savings and margin improvement actions are ahead of the implementation plan for 2027 and will be further extended. In addition to the recent acquisitions and product launches, incremental investment will be directed to Vicon’s significant opportunities in markerless and hybrid systems, robotics and accelerating the move to recurring software revenue. The Company also expects to imminently announce an acquisition to complement its Vicon business, move:ai. IVMS is building a more focused portfolio of repeatable inspection products.
Against this backdrop, FY27 Adjusted EBIT is expected to be at or above the current market expectations of £3.5m with revenue below current market expectations**.
Motion Capture Vicon
Vicon’s entertainment revenue has been affected by reduced investment across film, television and games, including studio consolidation and lower demand for new virtual-production stages, delaying several large contracts. Demand remains more resilient in location-based entertainment and selected Asian markets. In health and life sciences, constrained research funding and institutional budgets, particularly in the US, continue to delay purchasing decisions.
Robotics remains a particularly encouraging area of demand. Vicon has secured orders from major robotics companies, with opportunities in humanoid robot development and drone tracking. Its systems capture human movements used to train robots and provide precise reference measurements for the development and testing of robots and autonomous systems. These applications create opportunities to expand customer relationships as programmes move from research into wider deployment.
Vicon’s ambition is to become a broader movement intelligence platform for an AI-enabled world. Accurate measurement of how people and machines move is valuable both as training data and as a means of testing the performance of AI systems. Combining Vicon’s established measurement capabilities with markerless technology and a growing base of proprietary movement data can extend its role across robotics, digital content creation and human movement analysis. This provides scope for recurring software, data and services revenues alongside hardware sales.
The acquisition of move:ai’s technology and assets, to be announced imminently, is intended to accelerate this strategy. It gives Vicon immediate access to additional markerless applications and customer relationships, while providing technology that can be integrated into Vicon’s products to shorten development times.
Hybrid systems are an important part of this opportunity, allowing customers to combine established marker-based capture with markerless technology within their workflows. This supports adoption across Vicon’s installed base and gives customers greater flexibility in how they capture movement. The acquisition of Captive Devices as announced on 1 September adds facial capture to Vicon’s body-tracking capabilities, broadening the performance capture offering and creating opportunities to sell complementary products to existing customers.
Vicon has also launched Nexus Markerless for health and life sciences, available exclusively through recurring software subscriptions. It extends access to markerless movement analysis and supports the development of annual recurring revenue. The newly launched version of the popular Vero camera strengthens the core optical product range and supports customer upgrades and new installations.
The Group has secured market-exclusive rights to a substantial third-party dataset of human movement recordings. These rights significantly expand the scale and diversity of the data available to Vicon, supporting the development of its markerless and hybrid technology. Together with move:ai, this strengthens the technology and data underpinning Vicon’s longer-term opportunity.
Vision Metrology IVMS
IVMS trading has been affected principally by delays to the next phase of a major contact lens inspection programme and changes to its distribution portfolio. The FY26 revenue range above assumes no contribution from the delayed phase of that programme which is now expected in Q1 2027.
Following the successful integration of the businesses within IVMS, the division has refocused its third-party distribution portfolio and removed lower-margin products. This has reduced revenue in the short term, but is improving the focus of the commercial team on products and applications where IVMS can add greater technical value and achieve stronger margins.
IVMS is progressing its strategy of turning bespoke customer projects into repeatable inspection products. It has developed three new offerings across optical inspection, medical equipment and semiconductor-related applications. Initial pilot systems have been sold for medical equipment inspection and semiconductor-related applications, with further deployments expected on customer validation. Reusing proven technology across similar customer requirements should reduce engineering effort on subsequent orders and support more scalable, higher-margin revenue.
Operational efficiency and capital allocation
The Group’s programme of cost savings and margin improvement is progressing ahead of the implementation plan for 2027. Actions include the integration of IVMS operations, removal of lower-margin distribution products and headcount reductions made in July and August. Further initiatives have been launched to reduce costs and increase product margins. The Group has also begun a broader review of product and operating costs, including opportunities to combine development activity following the move:ai and Captive Devices acquisitions. Investment will remain focused on the strongest growth opportunities, including robotics, markerless and hybrid capture, new core camera technology and repeatable inspection products.
The expanded programme is expected to deliver total net annualised savings of £1.5 to £2.0m, including the £0.6m already communicated, with c. £1.5m expected to benefit FY27 after planned reinvestment.
Further measures are expected to support closer collaboration across the business. The Oxford Metrics Group and Vicon Managing Director roles will be combined, creating opportunities to share capabilities, streamline decision-making and deliver cost efficiencies. Stefan Lampa will join as Group and Vicon Chief Executive on 1 December 2026, with IVMS continuing to operate as a standalone division reporting to him. Gary Bullard will then return to his role as Non-Executive Chair.
Cash and fixed-term deposits at 30 September 2026 were approximately £29.5m. The Company expects to launch a further share buyback programme of up to £3m, in line with the capital allocation framework set out in June. Details of the programme, including the treatment of shares purchased, will be provided in a separate announcement expected imminently.
Gary Bullard, Non-Executive Chair and Interim CEO of Oxford Metrics, commented:
“Trading in our established markets has been more difficult than expected. Changes in the studio landscape and constrained research funding have reduced customer investment, and we have revised our near-term expectations accordingly.
“We are making faster progress on the changes needed to improve profitability. We are simplifying the Group’s structure, reducing costs across the Group and focusing IVMS on products with greater repeatability and stronger margins.
“At the same time, the opportunity for Vicon is expanding. Demand from humanoid robotics and drone applications is encouraging, and move:ai is expected to accelerate our markerless strategy, opens new markets and gives us technology we can bring into our own development programmes. Alongside hybrid capture, our new products and the additional movement data, this gives us a stronger basis to build Vicon’s role in an AI-enabled world. Our focus for 2027 is on improving margins while developing more recurring revenue.”
*Adjusted EBIT means earnings before interest and tax, adjusted for share-based payment charges, amortisation of acquired intangibles and items considered by the Board to be non-recurring or not reflective of underlying trading performance.
**The Board considers current market expectations for FY26 to be revenue of £56.2m and Adjusted EBIT profit of £3.0m and for FY27 revenue of £52.5m and Adjusted EBIT profit of £3.5m.
For more information please contact
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Oxford Metrics plc Gary Bullard, Non-Executive Chair (and interim CEO) Zoe Fox, CFO
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+44 (0) 18 6526 1860 |
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Panmure Liberum (Nomad and Broker)
James Sinclair-Ford / Rupert Dearden
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+44 (0) 20 3100 2000 |
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Alma Strategic Communications Hilary Buchanan / David Ison / Louisa El-Ahwal |
+44 (0) 20 3405 0205 |
About Oxford Metrics
Oxford Metrics (LSE:OMG) is a smart sensing and measurement technology Group that serves thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. Founded in 1984, we started our journey in healthcare, expanded into entertainment, winning an OSCAR® and an Emmy®, moved into engineering and more recently, manufacturing. We have a strong track record of creating value by incubating, growing and then augmenting through acquisition, unique technology businesses.
The Group trades through two divisions: in motion capture its market-leading company Vicon Motion Systems provides motion measurement analysis to thousands of customers worldwide in healthcare, entertainment and engineering markets. In vision metrology, Industrial Vision and Metrology Systems is a specialist in machine vision software and measurement providing high precision, automated quality control systems trusted by blue-chip manufacturing companies in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, automotive and precision engineering markets.
The Group is headquartered in Oxford with offices in the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States and Germany. Since 2001, Oxford Metrics (LSE: OMG) has been a quoted company listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange.
For more information about Oxford Metrics, visit www.oxfordmetrics.com.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended by virtue of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019). Upon publication of this announcement, this inside information will be considered to be in the public domain. The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Philip Abrahams, Company Secretary.
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