25th Sep 2013 12:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Retail and educational interiors group Havelock Europa PLC said pretax losses widened in the first half, despite signing a number of key contracts.
The company posted pretax losses of GBP2.0 million for the period to June 30, compared with losses of GBP1.2 million a year earlier, which it attributed to an 8.8% fall in revenue to GBP34.2 million, from GBP37.5 million in 2012.
Havelock said revenue declined as a consequence of orders being more weighted than normal to the second half of the year.
Revenue for the interiors business decreased 10% to GBP31.3 million, from GBP34.6 million a year earlier. This lower activity in the first half was a consequence of orders made by key customers being even more second-half weighted than in the prior year, Havelock said.
The educational supplies arm also struggled to outperform 2012, with revenue remaining flat at GBP2.9 million.
Group net debt increased to GBP4.8 million from GBP2.4 million at the end of December. This was blamed on an increase in inventories to support a busy second half and capital investment of GBP0.9 million to improve manufacturing operations.
Despite the fall, Havelock said it won a number of new contracts which included deals with the Post Office and with Marks & Spencer in Asia.
"This has been a period of progress and despite a quiet first half, we are now running again at full capacity and have a robust order book for the second half," Chief Executive Eric Prescott said in a statement.
"Market conditions remain challenging, but we believe the work we have undertaken to increase efficiency and provide value added services across our client base puts us in a strong position to deliver continued improvement."
The company reaffirmed it won't pay any dividend in 2013.
The stock was trading at 18.95 pence Wednesday, down 3.42 pence or 15%.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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