Plastics Capital says trading in line with market views

The niche plastics group said trading in the six months to the end of March shows improvement on the previous year, mostly thanks to organic sales growth in the industrial division, and the initial contribution from recently-acquired Synpac.

Plastics said sales at the Bearings Business continue to improve as previously-won projects are starting to ramp-up following initial delays. The pipeline of business won but still to go into production remains strong, as does the pipeline of projects in prototype development and testing.

In addition, the weaker sterling against the dollar is helping the business, although the benefit of this is not expected to be seen materially until the full-year 2017/18 financial period.

The group said demand at its matrix business is also improving relative to the previous year, partly due to stock depletion during the prior financial year by some of its distributors in emerging markets, but also as a result of strong sales of C&T Matrix's broadening range of matrix products and other consumables.

In the Films Division, sales increased on the year before. Plastics said Flexipol continues to trade well and has a healthy order book, while the project to install a new extruder to provide an additional 2,500 tonnes of capacity over the next two to three years is on track for completion by the financial year end.

The group said Synpac, which was acquired in July, is trading in line with expectations.

Chairman Faisal Rahmatallah said: “Organic sales growth is now being achieved broadly across the group, and is being enhanced by selective acquisitions. Our largest division, Films, is trading well and moving into its busy period and we are adding capacity to progress further in this area. Our Industrial division continues to improve also as the pipeline of recently won business achieves production ramp-up.

“We continue to invest for further growth across the business and anticipate a year of good progress."

At 1220 BST, the shares were up 4.1% to 115.50p.