Buyers have been found for the Compton garage brand and the Alton and Robinsons greenhouse brands, which together lost £1m on sales of £14m last year, Marshalls has announced. It has not yet revealed the purchasers.
Marshalls anticipates a one-off charge of approximately £4m after writing off intangible assets, providing for the closure costs and net of the sale of the brands. It is estimated that ultimately these transactions will generate positive net cash of approximately £2m.
The company has also made further progress with its site closure programme, which began in 2008 and created surplus sites. Last month a site on the south cost was sold for £5m, yielding a net gain of £2m.
The site closure programme has now released £18m of cash with £9m being released from inventory and a further £9m from the disposal of surplus properties. This has been used to reinforce the group's balance sheet
Revenue from total operations for the six months ended 30 June 2011 was £183m (2010: £170 million). Marshalls' continuing revenue for the six months ended 30 June 2011 increased by 9% to £177m (2010: £163m).
Sales to the public sector and commercial end market, which represent 60% per cent of sales, were up 10%. Sales to the domestic end market, on a continuing basis, were up 8%.
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