James Halstead on track

29th Jul 2009 13:46

Commercial flooring group James Halstead said it is 'fully confident' of meeting market expectations for the full year despite challenging market conditions.In the UK, which represents around 40% of the group's sales, the last six months have seen a number of school, hospital and government PFI projects being delayed or deferred and there has been a slowdown in sales.On the positive side, James Halstead has continued to experience good growth in many overseas markets including Germany. "Sales prices are inevitably under pressure in the prevailing market conditions but with softer raw material prices and energy costs margins have been maintained," said the group."In addition, the performance of our outsourced flooring products, positive exchange rates and overseas earnings means that we are fully confident of meeting market expectations for the full year."