Kennedy refinances loan and offloads business units

BUILDING Plastics Holdings, the Manchester-based parent company which contains the assets  of entrepreneur Brian Kennedy’s double glazing empire, saw its turnover drop by £20m in the year to October 31, 2009, which led to the company declaring a pre-tax loss of £2.7m (2008: £13.3m loss).

The accounts, which have only recently been filed at Companies House, blamed the credit crisis  “and the resulting impact on the financial and housing markets” for the decline in sales.

“Whilst the directors believe that the market will recover in the longer term, in the short term the value of the market continues to be impacted by consumer confidence,” the company said.

Notes accompanying the accounts prepared by its sole director, Stuart Lees, show that the company considers “the macro economic environment and the market for home improvement products generally” as providing the principal risks to the company.

It also shows that the company breached banking covenants on one loan during the year, but  reduced its net debt during the year to £29.4m from £32m a year earlier. This was partly achieved by a reduction in the number of staff, which fell to an average of 586 during the year, from 800 a year earlier.

Since its year end, the company has refinanced one set of loans with existing lender Bank of Scotland and its banking covenants have been reset. It now has an overdraft of £7.9m with the bank and term loans of £11m. It also has £7.1m of loans with National Australia Bank secured against fixed assets.

Accounts also show that since the year end it has offloaded three business units – Latium Roofing Systems, Wilmslow Northern Properties and Trade Frames Holdings.

The group still contains 22 companies which are either wholly-owned or joint ventures with other businesses including Latium Holdings, Ultraframe and the Everest businesses.

Building Plastics Holdings was created following Latium Group’s £29.2m take-private of conservatories giant Ultraframe in June 2006.