When Mila's parent company Heywood Williams announced the Group's half year results last week, the focus was very much on the success of the underlying strategy to reduce both borrowings and working capital.

Results were broadly in line with market expectations and were greeted positively given the exceptionally difficult conditions experienced by companies within the group operating in other European and the US markets.

Mila Hardware continues to outperform the market in the UK, we secured funding at the start of this year for an ambitious investment and product development programme and it's definitely paying dividends.  Our recent launches of the Ideal flag and butt hinges, Prolinea inline and cranked espag handles and Evolution high security cylinders and door handles have all been enthusiastically received by the market and are helping us to secure valuable new sales.

We're continuing to exceed budget expectations and winning new business largely at the expense of some of our less agile and less well resourced competitors.

Mila is fortunate that we've been in a position throughout the downturn to be able to develop these new products, recruit new people and introduce new marketing initiatives and customer support programmes.

As I've said in previous posts, we're now poised to lead the recovery with the backing of substantial resources behind us.

Richard