Superglass plunges after profit warning

By GARETH MACKIE
Published on 20/07/2012 09:47

Shares in loft insulation maker Superglass tumbled by more than a third today after the company warned its second-half sales have been hit by “extremely challenging” trading conditions.

Stirling-based Superglass blamed the decline in sales on a reduction in activity linked to the current carbon emission reduction target (Cert) scheme, which ends this year.

It said the drop confounded industry expectations of a pick-up in business following an improvement in activity during the early part of 2012. As a result, it expects its second-half performance will be lower than the first half, when it posted a pre-tax loss of £800,000 on sales of £17.2 million.

The firm also said the construction sector has been “adversely affected by the poor weather and the unusually large number of bank holidays”.

It added: “Looking forward there are as yet no signs of any sustained improvement in the market and there continues to be great uncertainty over the transition from Cert to Green Deal when the former expires at the end of 2012.

“The impact of Green Deal and its effect on Superglass’ business remains difficult to predict at this time and accordingly the range of possible outcomes for the company is wide.”

Shares in the company were down by around 37 per cent in early trading following the news.

Superglass said it continued to lobby the UK government about the transition from Cert to Green Deal and was taking action to reduce its cost base by up to £5m a year.

It said: “The strategic objective remains to migrate Superglass into a lower cost, higher quality producer of glass fibre insulation solutions with an emphasis on selling its products into the construction sector.”

The group also announced the appointment of Allan Clow as finance director. Clow, who will join next month, was previously finance director of the interiors division of Havelock Europa, the Fife-based shop and classroom fit-out business.