Trading Statement

Cropper(James) PLC
01 February 2007



Issued by Citigate Dewe Rogerson Ltd, Birmingham
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2007

Embargoed: 7.30am

                               James Cropper PLC
                               TRADING STATEMENT



STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN, J A CROPPER

I am pleased to announce that the trading outlook for the full financial year
has improved significantly since the Interim Results announcement issued on 21
November 2006. As a consequence the Board believes that the Group's preliminary
results for the full year ended 31 March 2007, prior to net IFRS pension
adjustments, will exceed current market forecasts.

Despite the recent weakening of the US$, growth at Technical Fibre Products ('
TFP') has continued. Sales by TFP in the nine-month period to 31 December 2006
were some 28% higher than in the comparable period. We now expect TFP to
continue to perform at these levels for the remainder of the financial year, and
therefore TFP's profits for the full financial year will be considerably ahead
of the previous year.

In my Interim Results statement I said that although James Cropper Speciality
Papers ('Speciality Papers') had traded profitably in the first half, the
overall outlook remained difficult given the uncertainties surrounding forward
quoted gas prices and the upward trend in pulp costs. Given these challenging
market conditions, I anticipated that the profitability of Speciality Papers
would deteriorate during the course of the second half of the financial year.
This statement was based upon forward market projections at the time, suggesting
that the cost of gas in the second half of the current financial year would be
substantially higher than that in the first half. I am pleased to report that,
although pulp prices continue to rise, gas costs have moderated and thus my
projection appears to have been overly cautious. Speciality Papers continues to
trade profitably, albeit at a lower level than in the first half of the
financial year because of the rising cost of pulp.

The recovery in James Cropper Converting continues primarily as a consequence of
recent investment.

The performance of The Paper Mill Shop over the vital pre-Christmas period was
disappointing and, as I anticipated in my Interim Results statement, this
subsidiary will incur a loss in the full year.

The impact of the recent weakening of the US$ and € against £Sterling is
expected to have a broadly neutral effect on the Group overall as a consequence
of our internal currency hedging policy.

The Group's Preliminary Results for the year to 31 March 2007 are expected to be
announced on Tuesday 19 June 2007.


Enquiries:
Alun Lewis, Chief Executive
John Denman, Group Finance Director      Katie Dale, Senior Account Manager
James Cropper PLC                        Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Telephone: [phone]                  Telephone: [phone]
www.cropper.com                          Mobile: [phone]




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