Strength of infrastructure sector boosts underlying profit 25% at plumbing group

BSS has reaped the benefits of strong infrastructure investment by posting a pre-tax profit of 拢21.3m representing an underlying increase of 24.6%.

The plumbing group said that revenue was buoyed by the strength of investment in the public and private sector and strong demand in the repairs and maintenance sectors.

Chief executive Gavin Stark said: 鈥淭he group has made good progress with the key financials revenue, profit and cash flow, showing strong underlying growth in the first half.鈥�

鈥淭he markets we are operating in are holding up well and we believe the Group is well positioned to make further progress in the second half.鈥�

BSS increased pre-tax profit by 38.3% for the six months ended 30 September and pushed like-for-like revenue growth by 8.7% to 拢325.7m.

Underlying profit rose by 24.6% after adjustment for the one off cost of the Long Term Incentive Plan.

The group said trading in the first six weeks of the second half of the year were in line with expectations.

Shares were up 15.5p this morning to 386.5p, an increase of 4.18%.