Sales in the six months to 31 December slipped by 1.7% to 14.3m. In 2000 it made a 176,000 loss in the same period.

Cradley, which has a market capitalisation of just 2m, also plans to transfer its listing to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) market. The board has decided with the current market position it would be in the best interest of its shareholders to transfer action to facilitate this move will be made in the next few months, the firm said in a statement.

The groups directors said the results were disappointing, and that end of year figures were not expected to be good.