The unaudited preliminary results for the six month period ending June 30 2013 issued today (September 30) indicate that the Groups earnings before interest, taxes and depreciated and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 30% to 1.12 million from 0.86 million for the same period in 2012.
While revenue was slightly down on the first half of 2012, falling from 16.7 million to 13.9 million, profit before taxation increased from a loss of 244,000 to 343,000. Straight chairman James Newman said sales in 2012 were buoyed by the drought in early spring and subsequent overstocking by customers impacted the 2013 demand.
A much reduced cost based and a number of sales in the municipal market were among the reasons given for Straights financial improvement.
Commenting on the results, Mr Newman said: The Group completed the first half of 2013 with a strong order book which has given a solid start to the second half. With finance in place for three years, a significantly reduced manufacturing cost base and a number of new products coming to market, the Group is in a good place to build on its achievements to date.
Contract success
Chief executive Jonathan Straight said: It is a pleasure to report this positive set of results and the Groups return to profitability. Now that the vertical integration and associated reorganisation of our Group is complete, our focus returns to profitably growing revenues in all of our diverse markets.
He added that municipal sales grew by 2.2% to 9.4 million following considerable success with tendered business. Contract wins included Hartlepool borough council for wheeled bins with home delivery services, Thanet district council and East Ayrshire council for kerbside boxes and food waste containers and the Mid Kent Waste Partnership (Ashford, Maidstone and Swale) for food waste containers with compostable liners. A 1.7 million contract with Serco for the provision of containers to households in Canterbury was also highlighted in the results (see letsrecycle.com story)
Straight also refinanced its funding requirements for the next three years in June 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story). The manufacturer said the new arrangements will support the Groups operating requirements and will partly fund future growth.
Positive results
Looking forward, Mr Straight said the development of new products remained a key strategic focus. At present, the Group manufacturers a range of containers from water butts to food waste caddies.
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He explained: Being attentive to the needs of our customers and through subsequent collaboration, we have developed two exciting new products with an investment of 0.4m. The 3BoxStack is a stacking recycling solution offering three or four separate recycling streams mounted on a trolley. The Food Waste Inner Caddy (FWIC), combines the functionality of our market-leading inner caddy designs with our market-leading food waste caddies.
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