British Polythene Industries PLC has today issued an admirably no-nonsense update on current trading.

Sales prices have been catching up with the raw material cost increases which were a major concern last year.  The recent softening in these raw material costs, is likely to be only a temporary phenomenon as oil prices remain firm and the floor on petrochemical prices is now much higher than it has been historically.

‘In line with previous indications, we expect operating performance for the first half to comfortably exceed the same period last year.

Given the overall economic situation, and that we detect some customers are not as busy as they would like to be, we are, at this stage, cautious on performance for the seasonally quieter second half. Overall the company is currently performing in line with our expectations for the year.'