Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Bottom Line: No plans at Whessoe

Tuesday 26 July 1994 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

WHESSOE'S main business these days seems to be making itself smaller. Having only just completed its withdrawal from the project engineering business, it is now busy retrenching its Aiton piping systems interests. The instrumentation division is to shoulder the group's hopes.

So it is unfortunate that demand for tank gauges and like instruments has not risen as fast as expected at the time of the interims, making the rapidly worsening performance of the piping systems division seem all the more disastrous.

The board's solution is to shrink piping systems so that it is less noticeable - the resulting charge will push the group into losses this year.

While it is worrying enough that the board should have been over-optimistic about the growth prospects of instrumentation, on which all is now pinned, even worse is the absence of any strategy to reverse Whessoe's declining profits beyond reaching for the axe. Sell now.

(Graph omitted)

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in