(Sharecast News) - Shares in Coral Products tanked on Monday after the plastic products manufacturer said "a proportion" of expected sales have been deferred to the next financial year because of customer delays.

The UK firm, which has manufacturing and distribution facilities throughout the North West of England, said trading over the final quarter of its fiscal year to April has been hit by the timing of revenues linked to established customer contracts and the phasing of new business wins.

The delays have been partly caused by the conflict in the Middle East, affecting customer demand patterns and the timing of order fulfilment across certain markets.

While the sales shortfall is only temporary, with customer commitments remaining in place at contracted rates, "a portion of anticipated second half revenues will now be recognised in FY27 rather than in FY26", it said.

Coral Products did not give any indication of the volume of revenues deferred beyond FY26.

"Underlying trading continues to reflect operational improvement, with progress in manufacturing efficiency, integration activities and cross-divisional collaboration supporting performance across the group and underpinning the board's expectation of a positive full year underlying operating profit, notwithstanding the impact of revenue phasing in the final quarter," Coral Products said.

Despite the reassuring words, shares were down 13.7% at 6.15p by 1517 BST.

See the latest RNS on Investegate.