Orders turn up at Marshalls

11th Mar 2011 07:35

Severe weather dented paving slab firm Marshalls' results for 2010, knocking sales at both end of the year by £11m in total, but things are looking better this year. The firm recouped the £6m revenue lost at the start of 2010 but not the £5m lost in December, even so sales rose by 3.7% to £323m.The incremental costs of the severe weather at both ends of the year were approximately £2.8m, which clipped the profits recovery back to £9.2m for the year against a loss of £2.4m.Sales to the Public Sector and Commercial end market, which represent approximately 60% of Marshalls' sales, were up 6% for the full year. Sales to the Domestic end market were up 1% compared to the prior year.Things have improved further this year. "Sales have started to turn up following the difficult trading conditions of the previous two years although market uncertainty remains. On balance, the outlook for the Public Sector and Commercial end market is mildly positive. The Domestic end market showed modest growth in the second half of 2010 and installer order books at the end of February 2011 were an encouraging 7.2 weeks," Marshalls said.The dividend for the year is 5.25p after an unchanged final of 3.5p.