Business
Trading Statement Correction
Trading Statement Correction.
About this update from Artisanal Spirits Company Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Artisan (UK) PLC\n18 January 2008\n\n\nThis is an amendment to the announcement issued at 13.22 on 18 January 2008\nunder RNS number 0990M in which the third line should have read 'six months to\n31 December 2007' not '31 December 2008'. The rest of the announcement remains\nunchanged.\n\nPlease see below the correct version of the announcement.\n\n Artisan (UK) plc\n\n Trading Update\n\nArtisan (UK) plc ('Artisan' or 'the Group'), the residential house builder and\ncommercial business park developer, today issues the following trading update\nahead of the Group's interim results for the six months to 31 December 2007.\n\nArtisan's expectation for the current year has always been weighted towards the\nsecond half, but the first half of the year has proved more challenging than\nexpected. We are pleased with the performance that Rippon Homes has achieved in\nthe first half. Whilst sales units in that division are slightly lower than\nexpected, individual site margins have remained reasonable. However over the\ndivision margins have been impacted by fixed marketing spend levels across the\nlower volumes. The Group is confident that these hard won sales have been\nachieved as a result of the superior quality of the product offering and the\nability of local management to maintain an effective part exchange programme,\nand that they bear comparison with the best of our local competition. Our\nunderlying belief is that, despite the unfavourable economic conditions and the\nchallenging markets, consumer demand exists but is currently constrained by\nuncertainty and the difficult credit supply conditions of the market.\n\nThe commercial business park division's ability to complete deals has been\nimpacted by the tightening of credit supply. Investors with funding are\nreluctant to commit whilst the market is uncertain and the Group has seen\nprospective deals fail because of customers losing their funding. Consequently,\nwhilst there has been good progress with previously contracted sales, new sales\ncompletions have been disappointing, both of stock items and new forward sales.\nOnce again inherent demand for the product remains but economic conditions are\nrestricting the current sales opportunities.\n\nArtisan (UK) Properties, the investment division, has made excellent progress\ntowards delivering the first two investment proper...