Sebden’s steely determination despite profits slide

SPECIALIST steel supplier Sebden Group has witnessed its profits slide by £200,000 over the past financial year but its directors remain buoyant.

Sebden, which has its headquarters in Altrincham, supplies steel to companies which manufacture parts for the agricultural, automotive, construction, engineering, office equipment and white goods sectors.

The company’s financial statements for the year until April 30, 2009, show that its profits dropped from £1.39m in 2008 to £1.19m last time.

Its accounts also show that while its turnover dropped from £92.6m in 2008 to £80.6m last time, the cost of purchasing steel also fell over the same period from £84m to £72.5m

It sources more than 250,000 tonnes of steel each year from major European suppliers and in addition to stocking flat panels of steel it also sells galvanised and aluminiumised steel.

Sebden has seven regional offices across England, Wales and Northern Ireland and can trace its ancestry back to the 1950s.

The report states: “The principal activities of the group continued to be those of steel service centres and processors.

“The directors are satisfied with the results for the period and anticipate that the level of activity will be sustained for the next 12 months.

“The group finances its operations through a mixture of retained profits and where necessary to fund expansion or capital expenditure through bank borrowings.”

Over the same financial period its debt increased from £950,000 to £1.77m.