By Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY, NSW: The retail appliance industry remains challenging, with Fisher & Paykel today both posting a decent half-yearly result and scaling back its full year projections.
For the six months ended 30 September 2010, Fisher & Paykel made a profit after tax of $11.3 million, up substantially from the loss of $0.8 million reported for the corresponding six months in 2009. Furthermore, the sale of F&P’s Cleveland site ($19.1 million) has not been included in these figures.
During this 6-month period, Fisher & Paykel has been able to substantially reduced its bank debt: from $173.1 million at 31 March 2010 to $149.2 million at 30 September 2010. Proceeds from the sale of the Cleveland site were applied to this debt.
Although F&P reported challenging market conditions in the appliance industry, its appliance earnings before interest and tax by almost 20 per cent, to $6.8 million. Also increasing substantially was F&P’s finance business, which has surged 52% to $18.9 million.
Across all operations, F&P has forecast a full year group earnings before interest and tax between $63-70 million.
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