Shop fitter Havelock Europa signals turnaround

The Fife shop and office fitter Havelock Europa has shown further signs of a turnaround in its fortunes with a cut in losses and strong order book.

The company made a pre-tax loss of £4.5m but the underlying figure, which strips out one-off charges, showed a small profit.

Sales last year of £99.5m were up slightly on 2010.

Havelock said it had a strong order book for 2012 in the retail and educational sectors.

Earlier this month, Havelock announced plans to sell off its Showcard Print business for £15.25m in order to cut some of its debts.

'Core activities'

Last October, the Dalgety Bay-based firm won a three-year contract to fit out at least 30 new schools in the south of England in a deal worth about £20m.

Eric Prescott, chief executive of Havelock Europa said: "This has been a year of significant progress for the group.

"The strengthening of the sales and marketing team, together with key operational changes, has generated new business ensuring we have a solid order book for 2012.

"While we expect the market environment to remain challenging, our strategy to focus on our core activities only and with a stronger balance sheet, we are in a better position than we have been in previous years."