Cradley Groups troubled times continue after it recorded a pre-tax loss of 176,000 for the six months to 31 December.


The news follows last weeks departure of finance director Geoff Gibbons.


The groups pre-tax profit for the equivalent period in 1999 was 481,000.


Operating profits dropped by 94% to 25,000, on sales up 9.1% to 15.24m.


Cradley blamed the profits crash on price cutting and the fact that additional commercial work had been taken on at low margin.


Although overheads in the group have already been reduced, including staff cuts, further reviews are set to take place.


The firms share price fell to 19.5p, just 0.5p above the 52-week low of 19p.


The groups statement said that new shift patterns introduced in March would help to "reduce total payroll costs substantially".


But Cradleys attempts to control costs elsewhere in the business have been hampered because its SAP management information system, originally due to be operational in February 2000, "has continued to not perform".


Website wing Psyche Solutions also suffered as a result of the dotcom crash hurting the internet design market, and Cradley said it was "continuing to minimise costs".


Better news came from Cradley Creative Finishing, described as "progressing well" after a move to new premises last summer.


Cradley said trading was good, and its operations had settled down following the disruption caused by the installation of a new Komori web last summer. But it admitted that its year-end results were "not expected to be good".


Story by Andy Scott