Superglass out of the fire as oven restarts

SHARES in Stirling-based insulation maker Superglass jumped 8.5 per cent per cent after the group revealed its broken furnace was back in business.

Repairs carried out on the industrial oven will lengthen its life and delay a 2 million re-build scheduled for next year by at least 18 months.

Investigations into the cause of the breakdown showed a fault with the furnace's floor and the company said it will take a second oven out of action over Christmas to carry out works to avoid any repeat failure.

In a pre-close statement ahead of its full-year results on 24 November, the group said the 300,000 cost of the pre-emptive work on the second oven falls within the existing budget.

The board said it expected its results for the year to 31 August to be in line with City forecasts.

House broker Brewin Dolphin has pencilled in pre-tax profits of 3.7m on sales of 32.5m, down from 5.3m and 38.1m amid the collapse of the house building industry.

The firm expects a boost from the recently-announced extension of the UK government's home insulation scheme.

Ken Rumph, an analyst at Nomura, said the company had been "ignored by the market" amid concerns over debt, which he noted had continued to be paid-down.

Rumph added: "Superglass has turned misfortune to its advantage, extending the life of one furnace, deferring a meaningful chunk of capex and potentially avoiding another failure."