Levland "on wav back"

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 24

Levland "on wav back"

NZPA London British Leyland, Ltd, has continued to build on the profits made in the April first half of the group’s financial year, and is expected this week to reveal a surplus of about £3SM to £4OM (S7OM). In the first half up to April, profits were £I4M (S2SM). The depressed state of sterling has helped to swell the profit, with other countries buying Leyland’s products at cheap prices. Exports; particularly of! cars, have continued to play a vital role in Leyland’s new strategy, and slightly more than half of the output goes overseas. Leyland executives believe that to switch more of the output to the home market, while a good move in the short term to satisfy a greater demand than was anticipated, would seriously undermine the export effort and perhaps mean lost markets forever. Leyland produces what developing countries need, not just trucks and buses, but inexpensive road-making equipment, as well as military vehicles.

With its rapid success growth in the last year, a revitalised special products division is realising opportunities it did not think possible.

The chief executive of Leyland (Mr A. Park) said that he believed Leyland had “turned the rough corner and could see a way back.” The loss of several thousand cars in the disputes last month and at the beginning of September was the first substantial setback for some time.