12th Dec 2006 07:01
Laird Group PLC12 December 2006 THE LAIRD GROUP PLC TRADING UPDATE ON PROGRESS IN 2006 The Laird Group PLC ("Laird") today issues an update on progress in 2006 aheadof its financial year end on 31 December 2006. Laird has made further good progress in 2006. The Group has continued to benefitfrom the underlying strength of its businesses, from the diversity of itsproducts and markets and in particular its presence in higher growth segments,and from its well established, yet still expanding, low cost manufacturing base.Results for the year are anticipated to be in line with market expectations. In Laird Security Systems, our US business has been affected in recent months bythe well-publicised slowdown in the US new build residential construction sectorand we have acted swiftly to mitigate the effect on margins. The level ofactivity in the repairs and remodeling market, helped by economic activity, hasshown more resilience during the course of 2006. Overall, we believe that wecontinue to outperform the market. In the UK, the performance of our businesseshas improved during the second half of this year, with positive organic revenuegrowth compared with the same period last year. The Division as a whole haslargely been able to mitigate the effects of higher commodity prices. In thefirst half of this year, operating profits for the Division were broadly levelon the same period in 2005; we anticipate that the picture on a full year basiswill not be materially different. In Laird Technologies the strong growth seen in the first half of the year hasbeen maintained. We have seen continuing strong demand across all of our mainproduct segments and markets, in particular cellular handsets, notebook PCs andPlasma Display Panels. We continued to benefit from our broad and complementaryrange of technologies. This has been expanded further with the two acquisitionsannounced last week, of Steward and Supercool. Steward extends our presence intothe performance critical area of signal integrity, while Supercool extends ourpresence in the growing thermal management area. Our three new plants in China,which were opened in the first half of the year, are now operational and ourplant in Malaysia is currently being relocated to larger premises. Relocationand expansion of our plants in Shanghai, China and Reynosa, Mexico are on trackto take place in 2007, as is the start of construction of our large new plant inChennai, India. For enquiries: The Laird Group PLC Maitland Peter Hill, Chief Executive Brian Hudspith Jonathan Silver, Finance Director Charlotte Barker Tel: 020 7468 4040 Tel: 020 7379 5151 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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