ELECTRONICS firm Filtronic last night sounded an upbeat trading message as it looked ahead to the rest of the year.

Chairman Professor David Rhodes said in a statement to shareholders at its annual meeting that trading after three months of the year was ahead of internal budgets.

Sales in its biggest business, wireless infrastructure, and operating profit in its second largest business, cellular handset products, had been strong, he said.

Earlier this week shares in Filtronic - which employs about 250 staff at the former Fujitsu plant in Newton Aycliffe - soared after it announced it had been selected by an unnamed customer to supply initial quantities of an integrated radio frequency head unit for 3G WCDMA base stations.

The units allow 3G phone networks to boost their signals to users, at a fraction of the cost of existing systems and contain power amplifiers which incorporate semiconductor transistors manufactured at Aycliffe.

Filtronic said the deal established its presence in a growth market and that it was likely to lead Aycliffe back into the black after it racked up losses of £14.5m in the year to the end of May.

Prof Rhodes said the outlook now indicated an "improving trading climate" for Filtronic for the rest of the current financial year.