Brick group Forterra slips to a loss
Brick making group Forterra, which has a factory in Cradley, slipped to a loss in the first six months of this year.
Revenue was also down 37 per cent from £193.6 million to £122.4m due to the impact of coronavirus as it went from a pre-tax profit of £32.7 in the first half of 2019 to the £23.3m loss.
Forterra said that trading since emerging from lockdown through to the end of August had exceeded management expectations .
Production has now resumed at all factories operating in line with Government guidance to protect employees.
July and August sales revenues highlighted encouraging recovery at 89 per cent and 82 per cent respectively of the previous year.
Subject to the continuation of current trading conditions and there being no further Covid-19 driven disruption, the board expect full year profits before tax to be in the range of £27m to £32m.
The loss included exceptional items of £21m include impairment charges of £16.2m, restructuring costs of £4.4m and debt-refinancing costs of £400,000.
Chief executive Stephen Harrison said: "The group faced unprecedented challenges during the first half and I would like to thank all our employees and other stakeholders for their collaborative approach in overcoming the challenges we faced through this period.
"Inevitably, our results were heavily impacted by Covid-19 and the associated lockdown. We took swift action to ensure the wellbeing of our employees as demand for our products fell dramatically and we ceased production at the majority of our facilities. We also acted decisively to manage our cost base and ensure sales and production remained balanced. We have now substantially completed a range of restructuring actions and production has now resumed at all our factories."
Mr Harrison said Forterra remained very confident in the long-term recovery of its markets
