RESULTS

Revenue increased by 17% (23% at constant currency) in the half year to £56.5m (2009: £48.4m) driven by improvements in the dairy market and non DoD / MoD Protection & Defence revenues.

 

The Group made an operating profit of £4.1m (2009: £2.1m), an increase of 91% (118% at constant currency). Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (‘EBITDA’) were £6.2m (2009: £3.9m), up 59% (75% at constant currency), meaning our return on sales KPI (defined as EBITDA divided by revenue) improved to 10.9% from 8.0% in 2009.

 

Net finance costs reduced to £0.5m (2009: £0.8m) reflecting the lower level of core borrowings in 2010.

 

The non cash finance expense on our net retirement benefit deficit of £0.4m (2009: £0.1m credit) was due to changed actuarial assumptions, the most significant of which was the AA Corporate bond yield at 30 September 2009.

 

This resulted in a profit before tax of £2.9m (2009: £1.4m) and after a tax charge of £1.2m (2009: £0.6m), an effective rate of 41% (2009: 44%), the Group recorded a profit for the period after tax of £1.7m (2009: £0.8m). The basic earnings per share were 6.1p (2009: 2.7p).

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