Avon is pleased to report that trading has continued to be strong since the end of the first half of our financial year. The Board remains confident that the outturn for the full year, after the impact of an estimated £1.0m currency headwind, will be in line with market expectations.
The Protection & Defence business has experienced another buoyant period. Further orders worth £25m from the DoD since the half year secure expected sales to this customer for the current financial year and provide a healthy opening order book for next year. We have also seen an increased level of non-DoD orders from customers in the Americas, in particular in the fire services market for our newly approved Deltair SCBA.
We are pleased to announce that we are the first supplier to receive approval for our closed circuit escape breathing device (EEBD) under the new NIOSH standard. This approval is an essential requirement under a solicitation by the US Navy which we expect to respond to later this calendar year. The Group has a number of US operations and the translation of US$ profits into sterling on consolidation exposes us to foreign exchange translation differences.
The average rate of exchange in 2013 was $1.56 / £1. If the current rate of $1.69 / £1 prevails for the remainder of our financial year, the average rate for 2014 is estimated to be $1.67 / £1, and would give rise to a negative currency translation variance compared with 2013 of £1.0m at a profit before tax level. The relocation of operations from our Lawrenceville facility to our Cadillac facility has progressed to plan. The first shipments of our new Deltair product have been made from Cadillac.
The Group has seen strong conversion of profits into cash and net debt at 30 June 2014 was £2.6m, which compares to £10.9m at 30 September 2013 and £5.5m at 31 March 2014. During the period the Group successfully negotiated a new and increased $40m revolving credit facility with its bankers which runs to 30 November 2017. The Group will announce its results for the year to 30 September 2014 on Wednesday 19 November 2014