In the first half of 2001 we have increased sales and profits in all three regions in which we operate; the UK, mainland Europe and the USA. This improvement is chiefly organic, with only a modest contribution coming from recent acquisitions.
Overall our operating margin has been maintained, with increases in the UK and USA. In Europe the margin was reduced very slightly due to difficult market conditions in Poland and Germany.
Sales have increased in every country and we believe that we have further strengthened our market position in each of our three core sectors of Insulation and Related Products, Ceilings and Partitioning and Roofing.
These results underline the benefits of our broad geographic and market sector spread, and the Groups ability to perform consistently well. The downturn in Germany and Poland has been countered by particularly strong performances in UK Roofing, and in Ceilings and Partitioning in the UK, France and Benelux.
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The detailed annual report is available in a pdf format: Annual Report (1.7mb pdf)
