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LONDON (Alliance News) - Building services company T Clarke PLC on Thursday said trading remains in line with its expectations, with its order book higher at the end of the third quarter.
The company said its order book at the end of September was GBP320.0 million, flat on the level at the end of the first half in June but up 15% year-on-year. It said it has seen an improvement in the quality of its order book and is confident it will see a material improvement in its operating margin in 2016 and 2017 thanks to a more favourable revenue mix.
T Clarke also said it will be closing down its offices in Cardiff and Bristol after concluding neither are capable of delivering the kind of margins it requires from new contract work. The offices will be closed down by the end of the year and will result in the group booking a GBP2.6 million loss on the operations, plus GBP300,000 in cash closure costs.
Shares in T Clarke were up 3.3% to 89.0875 pence on Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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