Government cutbacks to hit Havelock

23rd Sep 2010 16:24

New chief executive Eric Prescott looks to have a tough job on his hands at Havelock Europa after the shopfitter slipped further into the red in the first half of the year and faces the prospect of reduced demand from the government for its educational supplies.Loss before tax broadened to £4.62m from £1.79m the year before. The underlying pre-tax loss, which excludes exceptional costs of £2.1 m (2009:£0.4m) and amortisation of intangibles (other than software) of £0.1m (2009: £0.1m), expanded to £2.4m from £1.3m.Group revenue from continuing operations fell 16% to £41.2m from £49.2m in the first half of last year. "The long anticipated news of government spending cuts will affect the level of work from educational customers, although not immediately since there remains a significant amount of work to win from confirmed programmes," said chairman Malcolm Gourlay."The impact of reduced Direct to School orders is more immediate, and reduced levels of order intake are anticipated during the rest of the year," Gourlay added.