25th Apr 2008 07:00
Smith (DS) PLC25 April 2008 25 April 2008 DS SMITH PLC PRE-CLOSE TRADING UPDATE DS Smith Plc, the international packaging manufacturer and office productswholesaler, today issues the following trading update ahead of its preliminaryresults announcement for the year to 30 April 2008. Trading in the second half of 2007/08 has been in line with management'sexpectations at the time of the Group's interim results announcement inDecember. Accordingly, performance has been well ahead of last year. The Group continues to benefit from the recovery of higher input costs inCorrugated Packaging and the improving performance in Office ProductsWholesaling. As previously indicated, demand for corrugated packaging hasslowed since the summer of 2007. This has led to some softening of corrugatedcase materials (CCM) prices across our markets; the strength of the europrovides a support to prices in our important UK market. We are preparing for a more challenging trading environment in 2008/09. We haveconfidence that our good market positions give us a strong base from which tocompete. DS Smith Plc plans to announce its results for financial year 2007/08 on 26 June2008. Enquiries DS Smith Plc 020 7932 5000 Tony Thorne, Group Chief ExecutiveSteve Dryden, Group Finance DirectorPeter Aubusson, Group Communications Manager Financial Dynamics 020 7269 7140Andrew Dowler This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Smith (DS)