How things change in less than two weeks. At the end of November, at the time of FKI's half year results, the engineering group was upbeat about its US Logistex business.
It said: "Turnover in Logistex was below last year's level due to rescheduling of major orders. However, order intake was robust and 19% higher that the first half of last year."
Today came a trading statement which painted a different picture. The company said: "Over the last few days, FKI Logistex has been informed by a number of US customers that, due to uncertainty in their end markets, they have decided to defer the placing of orders. The cumulative effect is to reduce expected sales at Logistex in the second half of the year by 10-15%. Operating profit will also be impacted."
The market is unforgiving of such things, and FKI's shares are currently 17% lower at 64.25p. Numis analysts said they were putting their recommendation and forecasts under review "until we undertake a more comprehensive review of all FKI's divisions".
