Further cost-cutting planned as Irish materials group suffers slump in orders over past six months

CRH, the Ireland-based materials group, has said its pre-tax profit for the first six months of 2008 will be approximately one-sixth of last year's figure.

In a trading update, the firm said pre-tax profit would be in the region of €100m, down 83% from €600m in the same period last year. This had been affected by €75m in restructuring costs and €20m from an “adverse translation impact”.

CRH said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first six months would be 40% lower than last year.

New measures would be introduced to make cumulative savings of €555m in 2009 and 2010, said the statement. This is in addition to €895m savings announced in January, and will bring total savings over the two-year period to €1.45bn.

Overall trading conditions would remain “extremely challenging”, said the firm, but it hoped to benefit from aggressive cost reduction measures and improving infrastructure spend in the US and some European markets.

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