City Briefs: National Grid; Trifast; Dignity

Utility National Grid has announced the appointment of Pierre Dufour as a n non-executive director of the business. The appointment is with immediate effect.

Mr Dufour has also been appointed to the Safety, Environment and Health, Remuneration and Nominations Committees of National Grid.    

Mr Dufour started his career at SNC Lavalin Group, a Canadian engineering, procurement and construction management business. He joined Air Liquide in 1997, later becoming chief executive of the US operations and  chairman of Air Liquide Canada.

As well as his significant experience on the main board of Air Liquide, he has more than six years’ experience as a NED of Archer Daniels Midland, having joined the board in May 2010.  

Sir Peter Gershon, chairman of National Grid, said: “His wealth of experience will bring great value to our board and to the Remuneration and Nominations Committees. Additionally his strong track-record in safety and industrial risk management, and the supervision of complex multinational engineering projects makes him ideally placed to strengthen the expertise on our Safety, Environment and Health Committee.

“Pierre’s appointment is part of our ongoing commitment to keep the board fresh and to ensure that there is a diversity of skill sets. As a result, shareholders will continue to benefit from strong governance and stewardship.”  
 
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Manufacturer Trifast has said business continues to be strong in all of its major territories, benefiting from the weaker pound.

In a Q3 update the group said its Asia business returned to growth during the period as it began to benefit from the anticipated recovery in demand during H2, both in the domestic and export markets.

The UK and USA operations are continuing to produce results in line with management expectations, while the European business performed solidly and continues to deliver year-on-year growth.

Its newest greenfield operation, based in Barcelona, a key location for Tier 1 automotive manufacturing, continued to do well in a sector that is an important growth driver for the group.

“The group’s capital investment programme is expected to deliver further opportunities in terms of markets, capabilities and operating efficiencies to support this growth as we move forward,” it said.

Over 70% of the group’s revenue is generated outside of the UK and during Q3 the group’s overall margin held up well despite the continued weakness of sterling.

In 2016, the pound was down around.15% year-on-year against a basket of currencies relevant to the group’s businesses.  At H1 end the group reported translational foreign exchange tailwinds of approximately £1m at the underlying pre-tax profit level.  

“Since then, the sustained weakness in sterling has had a further positive translation impact on group revenues and underlying profit.  In the shorter-term, if sterling weakness persists then we expect this to have an additional positive effect on the group’s revenue and profitability, however, in the longer term we may also start to experience some challenges within our UK business in terms of input costs as a result,” it said.

In summary, it said its balance sheet remained robust and it was optimistic of future underlying growth performance.

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Sutton Coldfield funeral directors, Dignity, has announced the appointment of Mary McNamara as independent non-executive director, with effect from March 1.

Ms McNamara is the senior NED of Motorpoint and a NED of One Savings Bank. Previously she held senior executive positions with General Electric, Close Brothers and Old Mutual Group.

The appointment means there remains an equal number of independent NED to Executive Directors on the board, in addition to the non-executive chairman.