14 September 2017 – final results

The plastics products group has announced its results for the year to 30 April and these have seen a 14.5% increase in revenue to £21.4m (2016: £18.7m) whilst underlying pre-tax profit declined by 41.1% to £865,000 (2016: £1.47m).  Underlying earnings per share fell by 52.7% to 1.04p (2016: 2,20p) and the dividend for the year was therefore cut to 0.7p (2016: 1.0p).  The decline in profits was due to a poor performance from Coral Products Mouldings with all the other subsidiaries performing in line with or ahead of expectations.  The poor performance from the Mouldings business was due to a lack of systems to cope with the increased levels of business being handled – this led to the chief executive and finance director both leaving the business.  With new management in place it is hoped that the business can improve its overall performance and so although these results are disappointing there should be better times ahead.  As such we believe the shares are a SPECULATIVE BUY.