30th Sep 2019 13:31
(Alliance News) - Fox Marble Holdings PLC said Monday its interim loss widened slightly, even as revenue grow strongly on higher sales of block material, particularly from the Prilep quarry in Macedonia.
For the six months to the end of June, the stone quarrying firm reported a pretax loss of EUR834,000, compared to EUR816,000 the year before. This was on revenue that grew by 63% to EUR1.0 million from EUR615,000.
Revenue growth was on higher sales of block material from the Prilep quarry, namely that of Alexandrian White and Alexandrian Blue marble blocks to wholesalers in Europe, which rose to EUR600,000 from EUR200,000 the prior year.
In particular, Fox Marble said it had secured its biggest single order for Alexandrian White marble, placed by the Swaminarayan Hindu religious order for the building of a new temple in Abu Dhabi.
Production in the period increased by 74% to 9,529 tonnes from 5,473 tonnes the year before, reflecting Fox Marble's investment to improving the production capabilities of its quarries.
"The first half year has seen a significant increase in sales of our material from the first half of 2018 with the emphasis on our white marble from the quarry in Macedonia producing sustainable revenues as production increases. The impact of the suspension of operations in the M3 quarry in Kosovo is being mitigated by our increased focus on the sales of processed material from our factory," said Chief Executive Officer Chris Gilbert.
"We are seeing an encouraging pipeline of sales from around the world and demand for our marble in projects in places such as Cyprus, Dubai and domestically in the Balkans. We expect to see an increase in sales of our processed marble from our factory in the second half of this year," Gilbert added.
Shares in Fox Marble were down 2.8% at 3.89 pence on Monday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; [email protected]
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