James Halstead Regulatory News (JHD)

23 July 2010

James Halstead plc ("James Halstead" or the "Company")

Pre-Close Trading Update

Following the year-end, and prior to the announcement of our full trading results in late September, James Halstead issues the following trading update. In summary, James Halstead expects to achieve market expectations for another record year for profits.

As anticipated by the Chairman in the interim results announcement of 31 March 2010, overseas sales have matched or exceeded expectations with increased global demand and the assistance of favourable exchange rates. We have increased sales in most markets despite the difficult economic conditions. Europe has seen strong growth, as well as North America, the Middle East and Asia.

Maritime and transport sectors have been particularly buoyant and Polyflor continues to perform strongly, having won new contracts to supply Gorki Automotive (Russia) and a number of ship building projects in Turkey, Korea and Asia.

Polyflor ROF, a specialist safety product, originally designed for the Royal Ordnance factories, is being specified by many governments which has resulted in a number of notable projects in the last few months.

As also anticipated in the interim statement, UK revenue is broadly in line with last year. The company is trading well although many UK infrastructure spending plans have been deferred or delayed. In our home market we are benefiting from customers moving to the longer lasting, and cheaper types of resilient flooring that are our speciality. We continue to see growth in transport and refurbishment spending.

Although we are pleased with the progress made in sales growth, we are experiencing raw material prices ahead of our expectations, particularly for plasticisers and polymers and in some cases there have been restrictions in availability. Whilst the situation is currently manageable, it is not ideal and may continue for several months. Overall, we have started our new financial year confidently despite the global recessionary backdrop, and we continue to focus on the further growth of our business in the coming year.

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