In Brief: Howden Joinery; Avacta; Capita

HOWDEN Joinery has today said it is pleased with its performance in the first half of 2013.

The kitchen manufacturer, which has a factory in Howden, East Yorkshire, reported an increase pre-tax profit to £43.2m (2012: £25.9m) and UK depot revenue increased by 7.3% to £383.7m.

Chief executive, Matthew Ingle, said: “We are pleased with our underlying performance in the first half of the year, which has been in line with our expectations. Our current performance confirms our strategy of investing in the growth of the business, in all core areas.

“We have started the second half well and we are on track with our plans for the year as a whole. Looking forward, with our important ‘period 11’ still to come, anticipated operating cost increases and market conditions continuing to be uncertain, our expectations for the year are unchanged, albeit that we have the flexibility and responsiveness to react to whatever conditions we encounter.”

The kitchen maker announced earlier this year plans to create a new transport  hub in East Yorkshire.

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HEALTHCARE company Avacta has today announced it has extended its commercial collaboration with ForteBio, a division of Pall Life Sciences.

The AIM-listed Wetherby-based business is a provider of innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare and has now entered into a distribution agreement with ForteBio for the sale of Optim, the group’s protein analysis product, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Pall Life Sciences has been in partnership with Avacta since 2011, with distribution agree-ments in place to market Optim in the US, SE Asia including Australia, India and now in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
 
Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta group, said: “The board is delighted to have moved the group’s distribution relationship in China to ForteBio; this partnership is performing well across the other territories with good growth in the sales pipeline for the Optim 2 unit which was launched a few months ago.  The training of ForteBio’s global sales, marketing and support teams has been completed and the Board anticipates seeing a strong perfor-mance in these new territories.”
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CAPITA, the UK outsourcing group, has today reported strong operational and financial performance for the first half of 2013.

The business, which has an office in Leeds city centre, today said pre-tax profit was up 10% to £205.2m and operating profit up 6% to £226.8m, as it announced its results for the 6 months to June 30.

Capita said it has seen record sales growth, with a highly successful sales period, securing £2bn (H1 2012: £1.1bn) of major contract wins to date in 2013.

Paul Pindar, chief executive of Capita, said: “Our strong sales performance over the last 12 months and contributions from 2012 and 2013 acquisitions provide us with excellent revenue visibility for the full year 2013 and al-ready deliver significant incremental revenue growth in 2014.”