INVESTORS : Post

Straight plc (AIM: STT), the Environmental Products and Services Group, is today providing an update on trading for the six months ended 30 June 2010, ahead of its interim results announcement on 6 September 2010.

The Board is pleased to report another six months of solid financial performance and continued strategic development.

Underlying Group profits are expected to be similar to those for the half year to June 2009 and prospects for the full year are strong. The Group's order book remains at the same high levels as at the beginning of 2010 and the Board believes that prospects for the second half of the year are better than in the second half of 2009.

The Group's Trade Business has continued to perform well, although both profit and turnover were affected by reduced sales of low margin plastic wheeled bins prior to the Group acquiring Helesi UK's business and assets at the end of March 2010. However, following this acquisition and based on orders taken for plastic wheeled bins to date, the Group expects a recovery of these sales towards previous levels and anticipates that it will be able to achieve higher margins on these proprietary products going forward.

Performance of the Group's Retail Business has continued to improve and it has now returned to profit. Sales are significantly higher than in 2009 and have been buoyed by greatly increased local council sales with 82% of English districts signing up to the Group's home composting schemes following WRAP's exit from the market in late 2009.

The Group continues to be cash generative, with cash balances at 30 June 2010 of £1.8m (31 December 2009: £1.6m) and with borrowings and deferred consideration totalling £1.9m relating to the Group's entry into proprietary plastic wheeled bin production.

The Group continues to identify and progress additional opportunities for growth through vertical integration as well as through product and market expansion.

Looking forward, the outlook for the remainder of the year is positive and the Board is confident that it will meet market expectations for the full year.