British timber grower Highland Timber plc has posted a pre-tax loss of £222,000 for the first six months of 2002 despite a 20% increase in sales.
The company put the loss down to a difficult operating environment and new accounting methods. Sales were £774,000 and gross profit doubled to £224,000, even though it restricted UK harvesting because of low prices.
Sales were boosted by improving timber prices in New Zealand and foreign exchange gains due to a strengthening in value of the NZ dollar.
