AGM Statement

15 Nov 2007 15:11

Thorpe(F.W.) PLC15 November 2007 FW THORPE PLC 15 November 2007 AGM STATEMENT At the Company's AGM, which is to be held this afternoon at 3:15pm, the Chairmanwill be making the following statement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, At this point it has now become customary for me to make a short statement aboutthe Group's trading and prospects for the current financial year. As can be seen from the last 2 years accounts, in 2005/2006 year the Group madeimpairment and other provisions of approximately four hundred thousand poundsagainst its investment Sugg Lighting Ltd. This was not the case in the year 2006/2007 and in fact approximately £100,000 was written back in that year. Theresult of this was that of the 20% increase in operating profits posted for theyear 2006/2007, some 12% of the rise could be attributed to these financialevents and not to operational improvements. That said and coming to the current financial year I can say that in the firstfew months of the year, trading has been ahead of our expectations throughout amajor portion of the Group and orders, which normally show a tailing off in theautumn, are currently higher than we would expect at this time of year. I can also report that losses suffered in previous years at Sugg Lighting remainstemmed and that the company has now been operating profitably for a number ofmonths. Prospects for this financial year are, therefore, encouraging." ENDS This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange