Plastics firm Carclo warns of tough times ahead as swings to loss

(Alliance News) - Carclo PLC on Thursday said it anticipates "tough" market conditions in engineering will continue, as it reported a swing to half-year loss.

The West Yorkshire, England-based supplier of technical plastics products swung to a pretax loss of GBP2.5 million in the six months that ended September 30 from a profit of GBP1.7 million a year prior.

Carclo shares were down 22% to 9.39 pence each on Thursday morning in London.

Revenue declined 7.2% to GBP66.9 million in the recent half-year from GBP72.2 million a year before. At the same time, exceptional costs multiplied to GBP2.1 million from GBP332,000, while finance expenses increased 75% to GBP2.9 million from GBP1.7 million.

Looking ahead, Carclo cautioned: "The tough market conditions are expected to continue in the near term. In the US demand for manufacturing solutions is anticipated to continue at the lower levels experienced during H1 2024, with design and engineering activity reducing as programmes are completed. A major restructuring plan for the US business is being actioned to reduce expense and to drive operational efficiency with the full year benefit expected to be realised in FY 2025."

More positively, Carclo said: "The board remains positive about the medium to long term prospects for the group, driven by structural growth drivers in our end-markets, our strong customer relationships across our global footprint and the opportunity to drive improved financial performance through our focus on operational excellence."

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor

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