Lupus forgets Hutchings with £17m profit
LUPUS CAPITAL, the building materials supplier, raised its operating profit 43 per cent for the first half, a year after seeing off controversial tycoon Greg Hutchings.
Lupus, which makes fittings for doors and windows, notched up an underlying gain of £17.3m in the six months to July. Group sales defied tougher conditions in the key US housing market to rise 14 per cent to £133.2m.
Lupus was left rocking last year when executive chairman Hutchings departed following a costly default on the company’s debt. He twice attempted and twice failed to have himself reinstated to the board.
Since then, a fresh management team led by Louis Eperjesi and non-executive chairman Jamie Pike has gone about stabilising Lupus’ business, focusing on cashflow and maintaining margins in the face of difficult economic conditions.
Pike described the interim numbers as “encouraging”. He said: “In building products we expect to make further progress in the balance of the year, although we do not expect to see a repeat of the marked period-on-period increases evident in the first half.”
Lupus shares rose 2.4 per cent to 85p.