Building materials group Readymix said the property market slowdown caused demand for its products to fall sharply, leading to a pretax loss of €9.6 million for the first six months of 2008.
The company predicted that difficult trading conditions as a result of weakness in the housing and commercial construction sectors would continue for the rest of the year and into 2009, causing revenues to continue to decline.
For the first half of 2008, total revenues from continuing operations were 9.4 per cent lower when compared with a year earlier.
Concrete and aggregates revenues fell 5.5 per cent, while a reduction in the number of housing starts caused pre-cast concrete products revenue to decline 25.7 per cent.
Combined with higher prices for raw materials, distribution, fuel and energy, this resulted in a €6.6 million operating loss, before non-recurring items.
When non-recurring items were taken into account, including €1.3 million in rationalisation costs, the loss widened by €3.1 million. This compares to the same period in 2007, when non-recurring items contributed €6.7 million to profits.
Difficulty in the construction market has caused Readymix to cut staff numbers by 15 per cent. The firm also rationalised 12 per cent of its operating sites.
The company said it has continued to invest in new capacity and assets. During the first half of 2008, it spent €12.8 milion on purchasing limestone aggregate reserves in Tullamore, Co Offaly, and completed what its describes as a "technologically advanced" ready-mixed concrete plant. A second facility is also under construction, while permission has been granted for a plant in Belfast.
Meanwhile, the company said its integration of Denis Tarrant & Sons, bought in November last year, is complete.
Readymix warned that rising costs would continue to put pressure on margins. "Against this background, the priorities for management are continued cost reduction and focusing our investment programme on projects to deliver efficiency savings," it said in a statement.
It said it would press ahead with plans to dispose of some of its non-core business assets, but said sales would only go through where it would add value to shareholders.
