15th Jun 2015 07:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Latchways PLC Monday reported a lower pretax profit for its recently-ended financial year as it experienced another difficult year in its European markets and its North American business was hit by customer de-stocking, meaning it has now had a difficult two years.
The maker of safety devices that prevent people from falling as they construct and maintain commercial rooftops, wind power turbines, electricity transmission towers, aircraft wings and industrial plants said it remains concerned about the economic uncertainty in the euro zone, but expects the steps it has taken to revitalise and expand its business pipeline to generate "sustainable growth over the coming year and furthermore reducing the disproportionate impact of particular contracts."
It reported a pretax profit of GBP4.9 million for the year to end-March, down from GBP6.8 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to GBP33.1 million from GBP38.5 million. It had flagged the decline in a trading update it gave last October, when it said it expected pretax profit to be between GBP4.5 million to GBP5.5 million.
Still, it maintained its final dividend for the tear at 27.50 pence, meaning the total dividend was flat at 39.60p. Its net cash at the end of the year was GBP9.8 million, down from GBP10.3 million a year earlier, reflecting the fact that the maintained dividend was now fully covered by earnings.
Basic earnings per share fell by a quarter to 37.87p, from 50.68p.
"As highlighted in previous trading updates, we have experienced a difficult and disappointing two years, in response to which we have made significant investments in our sales infrastructure to restore growth. We expect a significant return," Chairman Paul Hearson said.
"The new teams are only recently in place so it is too early to judge their success. That said, North America and Europe have made a positive start to the year and UK lead generation has been encouraging," he added.
Latchways' pretax profit has now dropped back from the GBP10.9 million it reported in the year to March 2013, which was the culmination of "15 years of almost unbroken growth". Its response has been to invest to strengthen its sales teams and while that process is still underway, it thinks that the people it has already added to the teams will have an "immediate impact on revenues".
Latchways shares were down 3.3% at 824.00 pence Monday morning.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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