Low & Bonar on track to meet expectations

International performance materials group Low & Bonar issued a trading update on Thursday, for the period since 31 May.

The London-listed company said overall, it remained on track to meet expectations for the full year.

“Sales and profits within the Building & Industrial and Interiors & Transport businesses continue to be strong,” the board said in its statement.

“Following the opening of our new Colback production plant in Changzhou, China earlier this year and the successful build-up in sales, we have started to order equipment to double the plant's capacity by Q1 2018 to ensure that anticipated growth in global demand is not capacity constrained.”

Low & Bonar said the £22m incremental cash cost of the plant's expansion will be spread over the next two years in-line with guidance.

“Sales within Coated Technical Textiles have been somewhat muted, although the manufacturing performance has, as expected, improved.

“Whilst markets remain challenging, we continue to see good progress within Civil Engineering from actions taken to improve our commercial effectiveness,” the board explained.

The group said it remained well positioned to make further progress in 2017.