Rossendale, Lancashire-based P&P Plc has reported half year turnover at UKP120.7m, up from UKP109.4m last time, with profit before an exceptional item and tax at a disappointing UKP5.3m, down from UKP6.8m, and cutting retained profit to UKP1.4m from UKP3.9m. The exceptional item of UKP2m stems from a reorganisation of business, and the company says that it has identified a number of products that are not pertinent to the group’s future strategy of delivering services and products to the corporate sector. The costs mainly relate to the write down of stock from 13 unnamed suppliers that P&P won’t carry in the long-term. P&P believes that it has a strong balance sheet with net assets of UKP55.6m and net debt of UKP1.5m, a gearing of 2.7%. This compares with net cash of UKP4.2m at November year-end, and P&P has since acquired P&P Sweden AB and made a deferred payment of UKP4.8m for P&P Belgium. In line with other subsidiaries, the Scandinavian arm was in profit. P&P Corporate Systems continues to be the most profitable division, and although the company refuses to give a detailed breakdown of performance by country and product, it says that distribution revenue has fallen even if margins have held up.
