Titon Holdings Plc (the "Company" or the ''Group'')
Interim Management Statement
Titon, the UK based ventilation and hardware manufacturer, today releases its Interim Management Statement in respect of the period 1 April 2011 to 30 June 2011, as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency rules.
Activity levels within the Group's key UK markets of house building and window manufacturing remain extremely subdued and total UK Revenues for the 3 months were 3% lower than the corresponding period last year. Whilst sales of traditional window hardware products have declined, sales of mechanical ventilation products continue to make solid progress. As might be expected in a contracting market, heavy price discounting by some competitors is leading to subsequent pressure on margins.
Revenues from overseas activities for the 3 month period were broadly in line with last year, with growth at our Titon Korea operation temporarily stalled by funding issues in the South Korean public sector housing market. As reported at the half year, we have developed our range of heat recovery units to allow them to be sold into Export markets and we are pleased to report that first deliveries have been made towards the end of the period.
There is still a great amount of uncertainty and lack of confidence within the majority of the markets in which the Group operates and we anticipate that this will continue for the foreseeable future. Whilst we still expect to gain a greater share of the UK domestic mechanical ventilation market and further grow our Exports, we remain cautious about the overall short-term outlook.
Increased levels of capital expenditure on new product tooling and on new computer systems have contributed to the decline in cash balances at the end of June 2011 to £2.3 million (June 2010: £3.1 million).
27 July 2011