Revenue loss for listed manufacturing firm
Doncaster-based manufacturing business MS International recorded a “disappointing” performance for parts of its group as it released its half-year report today.
The company, which has four main operating divisions – Defence, Forgings, Petrol Station Superstructures and Corporate Branding – saw its revenues slip from £37.7m in 2018 to £33.3m this year.
And it had a pre-tax profit loss of £486,000 for the half-year to 31 October 2019, compared to profits of £3.2m last year.
Company chairman Michael Bell said: “We anticipated that the first half year, ended 31st October 2019, would be a challenging period and advised in September that, in the short term, we expected a substantial weakening in the company’s results.
“Loss per share amounted to 2.5p (2018 profit per share – 15.2p). Notwithstanding, the balance sheet remained strong with net cash at £19.37m compared to £22.89m at the last year end.
“Clearly, although not unforeseen, the performance has been disappointing in some areas of the group but elsewhere what is being achieved is quite pleasing, albeit the benefits are yet to be demonstrated in our results.
“Opportunities are undoubtedly there, while fresh ones continue to arise, so we are seriously endeavouring to ensure that we are in a positive and capable position to maximise prospects as and when presented.
“Currently, many markets that we serve have tightened considerably, owing to the well-chronicled effects of global political and economic instability that prevail. Moreover, such widespread tough conditions have been exacerbated by some sector specific issues impacting across the company.
“In order to confront these various issues, we have already made some very positive moves and, although costly to implement, we are beginning to see the benefits emerge.”
He added that the firm is carrying out major restructuring in its forgings division, while the corporate branding division is also being restructured and expanded.
