Coral warns on sales target

CORAL Products has warned that sales for its financial year which finished yesterday are likely to be lower than expected, with an accompanying shortfall in profit.

The Haydock-based maker of injection-moulded plastic products said that the drop in sales was due to a reduction in the amount of Media products – CD and DVD cases – sold in the last quarter of 2012 since its acquisition of food containers firm Interpack.

That deal, however, means that sales and earnings are still likely to remain considerably higher than 2011 – at £13.2 million and £602,000 respectively.

The firm said that diversification efforts awaty from its once core CD and DVD covers had continued to be successful, both through the Interpack acquisition and the continued development of its waste container business. It has also invested £1,8m in new manufacturing plant to increase capacity for food container products.

Joe Grimmond, non-executive chairman of Coral, said: “As previously announced, we have been anticipating this decline in demand for media products for some time and have taken steps to mitigate the impact of this decline on the company.

“The acquisition of Interpack was a key step in reducing the company’s exposure to media products. We have been delighted with the contribution that Interpack has had on the overall group to date and look forward to developing this part of the business going forward.”