Styles & Wood narrows first half losses

SHOPFITTING group Styles & Wood said efforts to diversify its clients base were paying off and it broke even, on an operating basis, in the first half.

Nonetheless, the Altrincham group said sales fell 16% from £40.4m to £33.6m in the six months to the end of June, but it stressed this was down to workload cycles which tend to lead to more revenues in the second half.

It expects full-year revenues to be ahead of last year.

The company made a pre-tax loss of £1.2m, although this was lower than last year’s £2m, and just broke even on operating profits, up from an £800,000 loss last time.

Chief executive Tony Lenehan said: “There are increasing levels of activity and confidence in the sectors in which we operate which have begun to translate into a number of significant contract wins, as well as a growing order book as we move into the second half.

“Our improved performance endorses management’s strategy of diversifying the group’s product mix to focus on the needs of our clients. We now have an improving pipeline of new business opportunities and are able to differentiate our refurbishment and fit out offers through the integration of other service lines including space planning and management systems.

“We have identified a number of growth opportunities across key sectors and believe the group is now right sized and well positioned to take advantage of the growing confidence in our core markets.”