Earnings back on track, says Vertex

By ELLEN READ and NZPA

Plastics and packaging company Vertex is meeting its sales and earnings budgets for this financial year, chairman George Gould said yesterday.

Declining to reveal those budgets, Gould told shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Hamilton that progress was "very pleasing".

After posting a 70 per cent drop in March year net profit to $1.18 million - a figure which failed to meet prospectus forecasts - three months into the current financial year, the company was "tracking on budget, as to both sales and earnings", he said.

Acknowledging the difficulties of the past year - the company listed in July last year at $2.05 and its share price closed yesterday at $1.70 - Gould said Vertex was in a strong position to develop its market nationally and its export sales to Australia.

The company's dividend policy remained undecided, he said.

There was no reason to doubt the company's ability to continue to pay dividends at 14.2c a share, but the reality was that would need to increase dramatically over last year's effort to sustain that level.

In an effort to turn itself around, Vertex has changed its board and is concentrating on its core business.