Profits leap at Coral Products
A STRATEGIC move away from making boxes for CDs and DVDs is paying off for plastic products company Coral Products.
Half year results for the Haydock-based company showed a surge in profits despite a reduction in sales. In the six months to the end of October the AIM-listed company said pre-tax profits rocketed 135% to £684,000 as sales slipped nearly 9% to £8.26m.
Among the strongest-performers was Interpack, a subsidiary-based in Luton, which makes a range of injection-moulded containers for the food and chemicals sectors.
Despite the fall in sales in the half year Coral said its acquisition in the summer of assets from Neiman Packaging which are used to make packaging products for customers in the health, hygiene and personal care markets, would mean a return to growth in the full year.
Chairman Joe Grimmond said he was pleased with the good progress seen in the first half, and predicted this would continue in the second half.
He said: “We have continued to diversify away from media markets to the extent that, in the first half, they represented just 15% of consolidated sales. In June 2015, we purchased certain assets from Neiman Packaging which manufacture a range of packaging products for which new capacity has been added.
“This business has enabled us to broaden our range of services into extrusion blow moulding and injection blow moulding whilst, at the same time, bringing new customers principally in the health, hygiene and personal care markets.”
He added: “With a good order book and a strong pipeline of opportunities, the group’s performance for the current year to date remains in line with market expectations.”
