Profits slip for clothing maker Ciel Textile, supplier to M&S

Mauritian textile maker Ciel Textile, a supplier to Britain's Marks & Spencer and Next and Spain's Zara, posted a 15 percent drop in third-quarter pretax profit on Thursday citing lower profit margins in knitwear.

Ciel, which manufactures woven, knitwear and fine knits, said pretax profit fell to 110.52 million rupees (2 million pounds)in the three months to March 31 while revenue rose to 2.37 billion rupees from 2.04 billion a year ago.

“The Knitwear cluster was affected by lower sales margins and the start up costs incurred in the setting up of a new factory in Antsirabe, Madagascar,” the firm said.

On a 9-month basis, pretax profit rose to 551.42 million rupees from 539.39 million rupees.

Ciel said global market conditions were challenging, with some large retailers experiencing stagnant sales leading to the closing of stores and higher credit risk.

It said due to this, it expected earnings for the last quarter of the current financial year to be lower than that of the corresponding quarter of last year.

Ciel Textile, which is listed on the island's secondary Development and Enterprise Market, said its earnings per share fell to 0.57 rupees in the third quarter from 0.91 rupees a year earlier.

$1 = 34.9500 Mauritius rupees