Readymix reports €3.9m first quarter loss

Readymix, the Dublin-listed building materials group, made a pretax loss of €3.9 million for the first quarter on a 39 per cent drop in revenue.

The company said the loss was a marginal improvement on the €4 million loss reported in the first quarter in 2008. Revenues were lower due to a fall in volumes across all markets, the company said in an interim management statement.

Readymix said it has introduced cost reduction measures that resulted in 178 people or 28 per cent of the workforce leave the company.

Remuneration for senior management was cut 10 per cent on March 1st while pay for all employees will fall 5 per cent from May 1st.

Capital spending in the first quarter was down 95 per cent on the same period in 2008.

For the rest of the year Readymix expects revenues to continue to fall, driven by poor volumes “due to limited infrastructure spending and reduced demand from housing and commercial construction”.

The company has a positive cash balance of €1.2 million. Mexican building materials giant Cemex controls Readymix.

At 2.30pm shares in Readymix were unchanged in Dublin at 23 cent giving the company a market cap of €25 million. Its shares are down 83 per cent over the last year.