Record profits at Travis Morgan

Builders' Merchant Travers Morgan is upbeat after recording pre-tax profit up 15.5 per cent to £26.1 million on a 13 per cent advance in turnover to £304.5 million for the six months of 1998 compared with the same period in 1997. The 279-outlet company managed to increase margins by one point to 9.2 per cent.

The Northampton-based merchant said that a number of initiatives had been taken to improve margins including reducing the number of principal suppliers to obtain better trade rebates and improved stock control coupled with measures to control theft. These measures had yielded a 1.3 per cent increase in margins compared with the first half of last year.

The firm's interims included figures from seven businesses that had been acquired since the end of 1997, adding another 14 outlets to the group. Collectively they turned in a pre-tax profit of £1 million on a turnover of £11 million.

Despite the prevailing good news, chairman Tony Travis issued a note of caution about the future. He said: "We continue to believe that prospects for the year as a whole remain satisfactory. Looking farther ahead, higher UK interest rates and the recent volatility of international markets make us more cautious about the outlook for our industry."

l The construction industry's lack-lustre appeal to the City has reached a new low with the removal of the last two remaining companies, RMC and Blue Circle, for the FTSE 100 index.