Profits on the upturn as markets stabilise
0 Comments | Journal (Newcastle, England), The, May 15, 2010
BUILDING and heating supplies firm Wolseley highlighted an upturn in fortunes as it revealed it was on course to beat profit expectations.
The group, which trades as Build Center and Plumb Center, said most of its markets were continuing to stabilise.
Wolseley shares jumped 8% in a weak market as investors welcomed the firm’s prediction that it expected to exceed the current City forecast for profits of pounds 374m in the year to July 31.
It reported like-for-like revenues growth in the UK and Canada during the quarter to April 30 and said new residential and repair and maintenance markets were expected to continue to improve.
Chief executive Ian Meakins said: “Demand across the markets in which we operate remains mixed though most markets continue to stabilise.”
Overall, profits for the third quarter of the company’s financial year were more than double last year at pounds 101m. Profits in the UK, where the group owns the bathroom specialist Bathstore, were pounds 31m compared to pounds 13m for the same quarter a year ago.
Total UK revenues declined by 5% to pounds 625m in the quarter, but the figure was 4% higher on a like-for-like basis as the company built on the progress seen since the summer of last year.
This has been driven by the plumbing and heating businesses, as trends in the building materials sector have yet to show a return to growth.
Wolseley recently identified its UK Build Center chain as one of 19 businesses earmarked for potential sale. As part of the review by Mr Meakins, who joined the company last year, Wolseley will seek to improve the performance of the businesses before deciding whether to put them up for sale.
In the United States, revenues were down 10% to pounds 1.3bn, but the fall on a like-for-like basis was limited to 4%.
The company has kept a tight grip on its cost base, having cut 1,900 jobs in the first half of its financial year – including 745 in the UK – on top of the 10,000 shed the previous year. It employs 47,000 people in 25 countries
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Fear you?ll say the wrong thing, fall into project quicksand, find no support or be kept out of the loop. These soul-depleting cultures trample self-esteem, negate initiative, encourage survival behavior and diminish motivation.
But in twenty years in management I?ve learned something else about company politics. It doesn?t have to be a blood-sport. The politics label can be assigned to assisting other departments, supporting company initiatives, cooperating with those in charge, sharing information, and helping others achieve results. You see, strategic alignments, interdepartmental collaboration and volunteering for additional work assignments are politics, too.
Politics can be served with a negative or a positive impact. Samuel B. Bacharach, a Cornell University professor, puts it this way in Get Them on Your Side: ?Politics is simply the way we influence others to achieve our goals. As long as those goals are positive, and not achieved at the expense of others, the politics of getting them accomplished is neither manipulative nor negative. Dictators may be political, but saints might be, too.?
It?s the intention behind an action that determines whether politics creates fear or builds relationships. What?s the motive? If politics is a dirty word where you work, undermining results and reducing staff engagement, consider your contribution to that culture.
You see, we have a choice how we use our power and influence.
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So they stop making decisions. Can you see where that might have happened in your life? Think back to a time when you last made a really Powerful Decision. Remember how it felt. And consider how long it?s been since that last one.
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Once you make a Powerful Decision you?ll find your awareness begins to open up and you start to see things that you?ve never noticed before. Opportunities and people that may have been there all along, now become apparent to you.
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All of them possess double coats that stand away from the body, prick ears and a tail that curls tightly and is usually carried over the back. Among the most common Spitz breeds represented today are the Keeshond, the Chow Chow, the Finnish Spitz, the Shiba Inu and the Akita and several others, besides the American Eskimo. The American Eskimo has the shape of the typical Spitz type of dog, with short erect ears, a bushy stand off coat all over the body and a brushy tail curling over the back. In 1985 The American Eskimo was first registered in the American Kennel club in the non sporting group.
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