Hill & Smith says trading ahead of last year

(Sharecast News) - Road safety barrier maker Hill & Smith Holdings said trading in the first four months of 2019 was ahead of last year despite a "cautious" investment environment.The company said road-based infrastructure spend continued to underpin demand in its utilities and galvanising operations.Hill & Smith also confirmed that full year expectations were unchanged, ahead of its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday."After a slower start to the year in the UK Roads market, the implementation of the government's long-term road investment strategy is resulting in increasing utilisation of our temporary safety barrier rental fleet," the company said.It added that US infrastructure investment continued to be robust with good demand across its portfolio of products. The US businesses delivered revenues and profitability ahead of the prior year and were carrying strong order backlogs.In contrast, the company said there had been a slower start to the year within some of our smaller international operations, in particular the Scandinavian and Australian roads businesses.Hill & Smith also announced it would start the search for a successor to chairman Jock Lennox, with a replacement expected to be in post in a year.