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LONDON (Alliance News) - Coral Products PLC Friday swung to a loss for the year to end-April, as it wrote down its media assets due to the "relentless decline" of the media packaging industry.
The injection-moulded plastic products company maintained its total dividend at 0.5 pence.
The company posted a pretax loss of GBP785,000, down from a pretax profit of GBP350,000, as revenue was slightly down at GBP17.2 million from GBP17.3 million and it posted an impairment charge of GBP1.3 million on its media assets.
It said that the media packaging industry had continued to decline primarily as a result of the increase in electronic media downloading. However, the company is shifting its focus to increase the level of revenues from non-media products. Non-media revenues were GBP10.9 million for the year, up from GBP9.2 million.
Coral Products acquired Tatra Plastics Manufacturing Ltd after the year end, which it said means it can conclude its three-year strategic plan early. As a result its is now developing a new three-year plan.
The company said the year ahead "looks promising" as it begins to supply new products for retail distribution, and continues to develop in-house food packaging and waste disposal containers.
Its Interpack subsidiary is performing strongly, Coral Products said, and the acquisition of Tatra opens up new markets, customer opportunities and expands its product range, which underpins the company's confidence for the future.
"We believe the opportunity exists for us to create a significant plastic moulding business, and we remain confident in our ability to implement our strategic vision and improve business performance to increase our customer base and market share and drive financial results over the medium term," said Chairman Joe Grimmond in a statement.
Shares in Coral Products were trading down 7.1% at 13.00 pence Friday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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