News

Lees Foods' interim profits fell as a combination of power, raw materials and distribution costs hit the business.

Profits in the half-year to June fell to £222,000 from £413,000 on sales of £8.89m, up from £7.85m. "The company continues to trade successfully, although profits will be down on last year's figures as I reported previously," chairman Raymond Miquel said.

Downhole gas compressor developer Corac's six months to 30 June 2008 showed a higher net loss of £1.28m, up from a loss of £725,000, after ongoing investment to fully develop the DCG and take it to market. "Corac now has pre-production industrial air units operating in factories in Taiwan, China and Austria and anticipates further orders in due course," it added.

Piccolino and Restaurant Bar and Grill owner Individual Restaurant says conditions have toughened in the first 10 weeks of the second half of the year. "It is is too early to judge how the current economic environment will impact the important Christmas trading period. Furthermore, cost inflation will continue to put pressure on margins for some time to come," it said. First half losses to June fell to £83,000 from £157,000 on sales of £24m, up from £21.6m.

China-focused clothes group Natsun says trading continues to be affected by rising wool costs, the increase of domestic labour costs and the appreciation of the Renminbi (RMB) against the US dollar together with wider economic uncertainty. First half profits were Rmb6.1m on sales of Rmb314m.

Profits tumbled at logistics software group Pennant to £55,000 from £375,000 in the six months to June. Sales fell to £5.4m from £6.5m. "Although current global economic conditions will continue to have an impact on trading, all operating divisions within the group are well positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise," it said.

Information management software company Infonic saw pre-tax losses widen but said trading in all divisions remains strong. Pre-tax losses increased to £4.6m in the first half ended 30 June compared with a loss of £3.1m last time. Revenue rose 42.5% to £2.6m.

Copper and gold miner Anglo Asian Mining saw pretax losses sharply reduced to $2.43m in the first half of 2008 from a loss of £12.26m the year before.

"The company remains optimistic that the majority of the construction work at Gedabek will be completed by year end and first gold production will follow soon thereafter," said company chairman, Khosrow Zamani.

IT solutions provider Centrom Group has been hit by late starting contracts and the slow roll-out of the NHS national IT programme.

The company slipped into loss at the interim stage, losing £0.175m versus a pre-tax profit of £0.074m in the first half of 2007. Revenue slipped to £1.3m from £1.8m.