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Posted 08/09/05 13:38
Results - Norish plc announces pre-tax profits of £0.9m (after net exceptional gains of £0.7m) for the six months ended 30 June 2005. This compares with pre-tax profits of £0.2m for the same period last year. Turnover from continuing operations increased by £0.3m to £5.4m. The adjusted earnings per share increased to 1.7p compared to 1.2p for the same period last year.
The cold storage division performed well with high occupancy in the first half of the year increasing gross profit from £0.2m to £0.5m, despite increasing power costs.
Our ambient facilities at York and Felixstowe performed marginally better than last year.
An exceptional gain of £0.9m resulted from the sale of our Belvedere facility in April 2005 for £2.8m, net of costs. This reflects the Company's strategy in exiting from its commodity activities in raw material storage of cocoa and coffee.
In August 2005 we exercised our option to acquire the land and property of the York facility from RSH Properties for a total consideration, net of costs, of £2.0m. This facility is an ambient food storage warehouse which has been leased since 2000.
The company incurred an exceptional reorganisation cost of £0.2m in restructuring the business to meet its current needs.
Outlook - The business historically performs well in the second half of the year and at this stage we have no reason to believe that this will not be the case. However, we will be experiencing high energy costs in the fourth quarter and at present we are introducing a number of initiatives to combat these increasing costs.
Financial Strength - Shareholders funds at 30 June 2005 were £6.1m compared with £5.2m at 31 December 2004. Net cash surplus at 30 June 2005 was £1.3m, compared with a net debt of £2.0m at 31 December 2004.
Board Changes - Norman Hatcliff joined the board in July 2005 as Group Operations Director. He joined the company in 2000 and has extensive experience in the logistics industry having previously worked with Exel and TDG. In the past two years he has been responsible for all of the Company's commercial and operational activities.
Iain Buntain, Finance Director has decided to leave the company to pursue other business interests. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Iain for all his work and effort in helping the company through some difficult years culminating in the successful restructuring of the business. Aidan Hughes, Company Secretary will assume responsibility for the Company's finance function. Aidan is a Chartered Accountant and has been with the business since 1996.
Dividend - The board has decided to declare an interim dividend of €1.25c to be payable on 28 October 2005 for those shareholders on the record as at 30 September 2005.
Ted O'Neill
Executive Chairman