Howco suffers 25% sales dip in 'challenging market'

ENGINEERING group Howco has blamed "challenging" market conditions for a 25 per cent fall in like-for-like sales in 2010.

Accounts filed at Companies House showed that turnover fell to 118 million in the 15 months to 31 January from 127m in the year to 26 September, 2009.

The Glasgow-based company changed its year-end, making comparisons more difficult, but pre-tax profits fell 15m to 11m.

The company paid a dividend of 5m, having not made a pay out to shareholders during the previous period. Its parent company is listed as Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo, which owns companies spread across the metals, mining, media, transport and property sectors.

Writing in the accounts, Howco director Kenneth Ness said: "The company has achieved a solid result against a background of an increasingly challenging competitive and economic environment."

One of Howco's most high-profile contracts in recent years was to build the Oyster wave power device for Edinburghbased Aquamarine.