20 February 2019 – trading update

The company has announced a profit warning the day before interim results are due to be announced.  As announced in the last trading update on 10 January, good sales growth was achieved in the first half with continuing underlying revenues, excluding the benefit of first quarter revenues from Danlind, up 6.0% on the same period a year earlier.  However, cost pressures are ongoing and overall raw material pricing improvements in the second half are unlikely to be as significant as previously thought.  Distribution costs also continue to rise above previous estimates and full year adjusted profits before tax are now expected to be approximately 10% to 15% lower than the previous year.  The share price has fallen to a level where we believe that readers should BUY FOR RECOVERY.