"Our summary of the market finds 48% of companies in the sector in a surprisingly confident mood," says David Pattison, senior analyst at Plimsoll. "This has been fuelled largely by their latest results, but we have identified a group of 17 companies which are the driving force behind the resurgence, having increased their sales by 23% and lifted their profitability from 3% last year to 7.4% this year.
"We always knew that for many companies 2007 was a make or break year, but with all the talk of a slow down in the UK economy the figures from this elite group of companies are really refreshing. A lot of hard work during the past couple of years is finally starting to pay off."
(Jim Evans)
