Stadium hit by loss in revenue but new wins boost books

Apr 23 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

ELECTRONICS and plastics maker Stadium Group says it has faced a challenging start to 2009 with a fall in its revenues during the first three months of the year compared to the first quarter of 2008.

The AIM-listed Hartlepool company, which last month unveiled a 17% increase in sales to £47.6m and a 5% rise in pre-tax profits to £2.78m during 2008, updated shareholders on current trading conditions at its annual meeting yesterday.

Despite the recession, the company announced it had made significant new business wins for the second half of this year and it expects snap up a bigger share of the market as 2009 goes on.

Shareholders also heard that cost-cutting measures made on top of 19 redundancies from its 110 workers based in Hartlepool and 200 job losses from its 1,000-strong workforce in China had helped to mitigate the effect on profits threatened by the slow start to the year.

The company has also taken temporary measures to control its staff costs for the first six months of 2009.

However, Stadium said it was cash positive and had reduced its borrowings during the first quarter by using operating profits and keeping a close eye on its working capital and capital expenditure.

It is keen to conserve as much cash as possible and not rely on its debt facilities so it is in a position to snap up distressed companies hit by the recession.