Chairman Cameron McLatchie issued a short statement that was remarkably full of wriggling but the basic point is that profits for the first half to the end of June will fall short of last year.
This is in contrast to his remarks accompanying 2005 results in March, when he said that the company had made a good start to 2006.
Perhaps McLatchie has a different definition of 'good' from other people, since he repeated today that 'in the circumstances, we still expect a good outcome for the first half.
He admitted to having concerns on volumes in certain sectors, particularly horticulture and construction. Yet he believes that there will be increased sales this year in the growing market for stretchfilm for wrapping bales even though the season got off to a slow start in the cooler spring weather.
Meanwhile polymer prices have remained firm and they are edging higher again as suppliers attempt to pass on their own increased costs.
One appreciates that there are factors beyond the control of British Polythene and the company may be doing as well as it can in the circumstances but falling below last year can hardly be described as good.
We would have preferred such a statement to be issued before the start of trading, rather than at the meeting, so that investors did not trade in a potentially false market. Other companies releasing AGM statements can manage to do this and the contents must have been known last night.
The outcome was that, having traded all morning at no more than 4p below last night's close, the shares slumped 45p between noon and 12.30p. By late afternoon they were standing at 657p, down 43p or just over 6% on the day.
