Profits were 16 per cent higher.In Continental Europe, planning difficulties continued to slow the opening programme but an expected six new outlets in 1995 would take the total to 29. Despite those concerns, the interim dividend was more than doubled from 0.2p to 0.5p after a jump in pre-tax profits from pounds 4.1m to pounds 8.8m. The shares, which have fallen 25 per cent since January, closed 2p higher at 97p.
Retail stores were boosted by an accelerating opening programme, which Henry Sweetbaum, chairman, said had given Wickes a substantially higher market share. SHARPLY lower interest payments helped Wickes, the do-it-yourself chain, to double profits in the first half to June, but the company warned that worries about the strength and depth of economic recovery continued to depress consumer confidence, writes Tom Stevenson. However, the ratio of debt to net assets remains high at 450 per cent.Ransomes’ earnings of 4.5p a share compared with losses of 4.4p.

The company said it was still negotiating the details of Mr Comer’s pay-off.Peter Wilson, formerly of BTR, was appointed chief executive last October. He was paid pounds 90,000 a year and had a three-year rolling contract. The recovery in the US economy also fuelled a surge in demand.
Overall pre-tax profits increased from pounds 1.2m to pounds 6.7m for the six months to 2 July. SHARES in Ransomes, the lawnmower company, jumped 40 per cent after a change of fortunes in the US helped to lift profits 450 per cent, writes Robert Cole.

Ransomes, under new management, has reduced costs and re-organised its product range. VIACOM, the cable television and entertainment company that bought Paramount Communications earlier this year, was last night believed to be close to forming a strategic alliance with Tele-Communications Inc, the largest cable television operator in the US. The firm expects the negative cash effect of this to be about pounds 1m.. ‘This has affected the group’s overall result, which is now expected to be below the best market expectations.’ Brokers were looking for profits of about pounds 3m this year.Gent has made provision of pounds 7m to cover the withdrawal, which will be shown as an exceptional charge for the year ended 30 June 1994.

The group now hopes to sell the chain.Gent said Susan Woolf suffered bigger trading losses than planned. The venture cost the company pounds 2m last year, though losses this year were expected to be less. The company said it wanted to concentrate on manufacturing, a move welcomed by the City, which marked the shares up 10p to 65p.
Gent’s 28-strong Susan Woolf chain was launched in February 1993 and the company planned to open about 50 outlets.High start-up costs and the recession meant bigger than expected trading losses. SR GENT, the Barnsley-based Marks and Spencer clothing supplier, is withdrawing from its loss-making chain of Susan Woolf high street shops in a move that it estimates could cost pounds 7m, writes Russell Hotten.