Pilkington owner significantly downgrades full year sales and profit forecasts
NSG Group, which owns St Helens-based glass maker Pilkington, has drastically revised its annual revenue and profit forecasts after declining third quarter results.
Nippon Sheet Glass bought Pilkington in 2006, making it one of the four biggest glass companies in the world.
In its latest results announcement, the group confirmed that revenues in the third quarter period had fallen seven per cent to £3bn, while pre-tax profits of £37m compared with £120m in the same quarter last year.
NSG had originally forecast annual revenues for the current financial year of £4.37bn, and a pre-tax profit of £130m.
However, it has now revised those figures down to £3.95bn sales, and a pre-tax profit of £21m.
It blamed the latest revision on foreign exchange fluctuations, worsening market conditions in Europe and Asia and the resulting decline in asset utilisation.
NSG said in its architectural glass division it was experiencing market deterioration in Europe and South East Asia and lower asset utilisation.
In the automotive sector it revealed Europe was contributing to about half of the decline, followed by Japan. Sales volume reduction and lower asset utilisation in Europe was due to production cuts by vehicle manufacturers, while the significant decline in Japan volumes from the third quarter was following a consumption tax increase.
The technical division was hit by vehicle production decline in Europe and China, impacting glass cord demand.
Actions in hand to address the declines include: Continued automotive sector restructuring and production line consolidation, mainly in Italy; planned supply adjustments, including earlier or longer repairs for multiple float lines in the European architectural market, while in the Japan architectural business a profitability improvement project is under progress and according to plan, including the consolidation of downstream operations, processing line closures, redundancies and price increases, aiming for a profit improvement in financial year 2021; the North American automotive operations are subject to ongoing efficiency improvements.
