Readymix is looking for further growth following the 10.9 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £7 million in the six months to June 30th, 1998, up from £6.3 million in the same period last year.

While the latest results were adversely affected by the poor weather in April and May, trading returned to normal patterns in July and August. Provided the weather remained good for building and construction, the "overall out-turn for the year will be good", the interim statement said. There is no evidence of a slowdown in house building but there was a "bit of a slowdown in apartments", said managing director, Mr John McNerney. However, he noted that, with additional capacity coming on-stream, supply continued to outstrip demand. Despite the overall buoyancy in the market, this over-capacity continued to keep a cap on prices. This is reflected in the gross margins, which rose only marginally to 32.7 per cent. Asked about the group's market share, Mr McNerney said it fell in 1996 and into part of 1997, as the group deliberately went for higher margin work. Since then it had "probably recovered" the lost share as it had reverted to its original policy.

Underlying growth is better than indicated in the latest figures. The group had some £300,000 less in currency translation gains. If this is excluded, underlying growth amounted to 15.8 per cent. There were a number of small acquisitions but these did not make a material impact on the interim results. Shareholders will benefit from the profit growth. The interim dividend has been raised from an effective 0.78p (after an adjustment for a one for one scrip issue) to 0.86p. This mirrored the 11.3 per cent growth in earnings per share from 4.88p to 5.43p. Sales increased by 10.5 per cent to £60.8 million from £55.07 million. A breakdown shows that the domestic market, with sales of £30.2 million, is evenly matched the operations in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, which had sales of £30 million.