Recovery hope sunk by Porter warning

PORTER Chadburn, the packaging and sports goods company, yesterday piled on the misery for shareholders with its third profit warning in two years.

The company said its operating performance for the year would be 'below market expectations', sparking fears of a second consecutive annual deficit. Porter made a pre-tax loss of pounds 3.6m last year and a pounds 1.4m loss in the six months to last October. But analysts had expected taxable profits of pounds 300,000 for the year ending 31 March. The shares dipped 1p to 21p.

The company is appointing Tony Philipson as chief executive following the resignation of Ray Dinkin in December. Mr Philipson, who held a similar post at the hardware distributor Savage Group, will accelerate Porter's plans to focus on its US packaging businesses.

Pat Barrett, chairman, said: 'In the US, the anticipated recovery in margins in the second half is taking longer to achieve and further steps have been taken to improve performance there. In the UK, the group is pursuing its strategy of disposing of businesses which do not meet our financial criteria.'