The international glass container operation, demerged into a private company early 03, of Irish-based Ardagh PLC, with facilities in the UK & Italy, returned a 23% increase in operating profits over 01 reaching EUR 32.9M. The demerged business reported an increase of 13% in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to EUR 74.2M on a sales turnover of EUR 288M, a rise of 9% compared with 01. Commenting the results an Ardagh spokesman said, "This is a very satisfactory performance which reflects the effect of improved market conditions on margins and the inclusion of the Italian operations in the second half of 02." The 02 consolidated Ardagh results, however, showed a pre-tax loss of EUR 30.2M in 01 due to the costs of the demerger & charges & redundancy payments associated with the closure of the Ringsend container plant mid-2002.
