ECM.L Regulatory News (ECM)

30 Mar 2006 07:00

Electrocomponents PLC30 March 2006 Electrocomponents plc - Trading Update Electrocomponents plc, the leading international high-service distributor ofelectronic, electrical and industrial supplies, is today giving a trading updateahead of its results for the year ending 31 March 2006. In the second half of the year, Group sales (adjusted for exchange rates andtrading days) continued to strengthen with sales growth of 7% compared with 3%growth in the first half. Within this, the International business has grown by15% (compared with 9% in the first half) with improvements in all regions, mostnotably in Europe and North America. The UK declined at 2% (compared with adecline of 4% in the first half). Gross margin is expected to be around 51% in the second half of the year, downfrom 52% in the first half due to changes in selling prices, targeted customerdiscounts and product mix. The Enterprise Business System went live in the UK in December and hassuccessfully supported the UK business and the Group hub since then. At around£25m, EBS costs for the financial year are in line with expectations. At the half year, the Group anticipated that the forthcoming RoHS Directivecould require an additional stock provision of up to £4m and this will now beprovided for in the full year accounts. The programme to create a lower cost infrastructure continues and reorganisationcosts of around £4m have been incurred in the full year, which are expected tohave an annualised benefit of around £4.5m. The Board expects that Group profit (before tax, reorganisation costs, and theone off provision for the RoHS directive) for the year ended 31 March 2006 willbe in line with current market expectations. The full results for the year will be announced on 1 June 2006. There will be a telephone conference call today at 09.00am for analysts andinvestors. Dial-in instructions are set out below. Enquiries: Ian Mason Group Chief Executive 01865 204000Simon Boddie Group Finance Director 01865 204000Diana Soltmann Flagship Consulting 020 7886 8440 Details of telephone dial in instructions: Date: 30 March 2006UK Time: 08:50am for 09:00 am UK Local Call Dial-In: 0845 144 0016UK Free Call Dial In: 0800 953 0937Europe & International Dial-In: + 44 (0) 1452 569 103Canada Toll Free Dial In: 1800 795 6202USA Toll Free Dial-In: 1 866 224 2914Quote Reference Number: 6416822Chairman: Ian Mason Electrocomponents plc Safe Harbour Statement: This announcement contains certain statements, statistics and projections thatare or may be forward-looking. The accuracy and completeness of all suchstatements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the futurefinancial position, strategy, projected costs, plans and objectives for themanagement of future operations of Electrocomponents plc and its subsidiaries isnot warranted or guaranteed. These statements typically contain words such as "intends", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates" and words of similar import. Bytheir nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty becausethey relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future.Although Electrocomponents plc believes that the expectations reflected in suchstatements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations willprove to be correct. There are a number of factors, many of which are beyond thecontrol of the Electrocomponents plc, which could cause actual results anddevelopments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by suchforward-looking statements. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange