Last checked at 9 Feb 2011 12:59
For immediate release 9 February 2011
Worthington Group Plc
Interim Management Statement
Worthington Group plc provides an Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 October 2010 to the date of this announcement, as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Since our interim report in September we have undertaken reviews on all of the arrangements and costs of the business and are hopeful that once concluded this will produce ongoing savings. Our costs and receipts for the period are in line with management expectations. Discussions with our associate company Trimmings by Design Limited are being actively pursued and appear to be moving in the right direction to reach an acceptable agreement as to the future arrangements. We will advise all shareholders once negotiations are concluded. We have entered into detailed discussions with Bradford City Council with regard to the possible future development of the site at Keighley. We have reached a stage where we will have to commit to spending several hundred thousand pounds to fully pursue an application and we are working with our lawyers to properly contract these arrangements. Our tenants move out later this year and we will work hard to have arrangements in place before this happens. Obtaining planning permission will, by itself, greatly enhance the value of the site but the process will be costly and time consuming without any guarantee of success. We are working hard to reach an agreement with regard to the pension fund arrangements and hope to advise the shareholders regarding this shortly. We are pleased to confirm that we have appointed Beaumont Cornish Limited as our financial advisers as we feel that building a relationship with them will be more useful to a company of our size. They have already provided us with some very useful advice which will affect how the company moves forward. We will shortly be calling a General Meeting when we will seek shareholder support with regard to proposals which we feel would better serve the needs of the company and shareholders and will enable us to better consider other opportunities that we believe exist in the market.
A Cooke, Chairman Website: www.worthingtongroupplc.co.uk
Enquiries:
Anne Aylesbury, PD Cosec Limited, Company Secretary, Worthington Group plc on 0208 940 0963
Roland Cornish, Beaumont Cornish Limited on 020 7628 3396