“Difficult trading towards the end of last year resulted in a reduction in operating profits, but the groupcontinued to grow sales in some markets. We have had a slow start to the current financial year and although sales in the first seven weeks of the current year are approximately in line with last year, order intake is down on the corresponding period last year, " says CEO Oliver Vellacott.

He adds "Over the last twelve months a great deal of work has been undertaken improving the rate of introduction of new products and we expect that these will start to show through in improved business results as the year progresses. However we remain concerned about the impact of current economic conditions.”