John Menzies Group warns distribution arm may suffer in 2006 |
|
|
Published
:
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:15
|
LONDON: John Menzies Group, the Edinburgh-based newspaper distributor and airport services firm, said its pretax profit for full year 2005 rose 17 per cent to 39.4 million pounds on turnover of 1.39 billion pounds, up 2 per cent.
Strong weekly sales and cost savings helped it in this performance, the company said. However, it warned its performance in 2006 could suffer due to harsh conditions in its distribution arm.
The company, one of Scotland's largest, said since the start of the year, its distribution arm has experienced very tough markets and, even with intensified cost reduction initiatives, its performance will fall short of last year if the current trends continue.
It said its aviation division had good results, as it was helped by recent contracts, particularly in Edinburgh, and acquisitions. Sales were up 10 per cent to 286 million pounds. Sales at its distribution unit were flat at 1.1 billion pounds.
Chief executive Patrick Macdonald said in a statement that he does not expect the improvements in the performance of aviation will fully offset the impact of the challenging environment in which the distribution is now operating. "We therefore expect that the group's overall performance for 2006 will be slightly behind our initial expectations."
The company will pay a final dividend of 13.7 pence a share, bringing the total for the year to 19.5 pence, which is an increase of 5.4 per cent.
The company's shares remained unchanged at 599 pence in early trading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
Pension deficit of FTSE 100 companies at 75 billion pounds: study 