Havelock Europa Regulatory News (HVE)

27 Jan 2010 10:18

Wednesday 27 January 2010 

HAVELOCK EUROPA PLC

Trading Update

Havelock (HVE.L), the Educational and Retail Interiors and Point of Sale Printing Group, announces a further update on 2009 trading.

The Group has undertaken a robust review of completed projects within its Educational Furniture Division, as part of its year end processes, and has identified instances where it would be prudent to make a provision to reflect likely reductions in final account settlements as a result of remeasurement by main contractors of work done on sites. It has also reviewed stock levels against expected activity levels in the current year following the recent integration of the Retail and Educational furniture businesses and intends to increase the level of stock provision against raw material and finished goods stock. There will also be costs associated with the Group's current discussions with its bankers.

All of these items will result in an operating loss before exceptional charges and will increase the Group's likely pre-tax loss for the year by up to £2 million. The impact is partly of a one-off nature and, where appropriate, as decided by the audit exercise, will be disclosed as such in the Group's year end results, expected to be issued in April.

Although the Board is not expecting a return to normal trading conditions in 2010, particularly in the Retail sector, the cost savings generated from the integration of the Group's Retail and Educational Interiors businesses, together with a realistic expectation of orders for the year ahead, continues to give the Board reason to believe that there will be an improvement in trading during 2010.