When I re-scored Goodwin (LSE:GDWN) last November, I was impressed by the business and terrified by the share price after the company published a trading update that revealed profit for the year to April 2026 would double.

To my mind, Goodwin had delivered the promise made a decade or so ago to restore the two most important companies in its Mechanical Engineering division, Goodwin Steel Castings and Goodwin International, after a crash in the oil price stymied demand for valves used in oil pipelines.

Goodwin enlarged its foundry and diversified to manufacture components for nuclear submarines and naval frigates, and self-shielded boxes and racks for storing radioactive zeolite at Sellafield prior to disposal.

Sales to the defence and…