Year End Trading Statement

RNS Number:8828Y
Blueheath Holdings PLC
24 February 2006


For immediate release                                        24 February 2006


                     BLUEHEATH HOLDINGS PLC (the "Company")

                           Year End Trading Statement

Blueheath is a national delivered wholesaler which uses sophisticated,
proprietary technology to offer a substantial cost advantage over established
players in the #16.4bn grocery wholesale sector. The Company today provides an
update on trading for the year ending 4 March 2006. Preliminary results will be
announced on 8 May.

Integration Update

The Company acquired A C Ward & Son Limited ("ACW") in November 2005 following
the acquisition of CTM Wholesale earlier in the year. At the time, the Directors
anticipated that the enlarged group would be able to achieve improved operating
margins through combining buying volumes, the application of Blueheath's
technology and business processes to the ACW operation, and the integration of
central overheads.

We are pleased to report that the integration is progressing well. Over the past
three months, the Company had harmonised the product range and secured improved
buying terms with the move on 1 February 2006 to a single buying group (NISA),
implemented the Blueheath technology at the ACW operation, combined the southern
transport operations thereby yielding substantial cost benefits, and eliminated
a significant quantity of overhead costs. The Company is now finalising the
configuration of the stock picking operations. At the same time, we are pleased
to report that there have been no material customer losses at either of the
acquired businesses.

The Company expects to complete the final stages of the integration work in the
first quarter of the new financial year. Indications are that the synergy
benefits, once these final stages are completed, will take the Company through
breakeven.

Trading Update

With the successful intergration of the acquired businesses and the addition of
the revenue from recent account wins, the current run rate represents an
increase in the scale of the business of more than two and a half times over the
past 12 months.

Recent market conditions have however been extremely challenging with many
customers trading at levels substantially below comparable performance in the
previous year. As a consequence of this and some delays in the timing of the
delivery of merger benefits until the buying group switch could be completed,
the Directors anticipate that both revenues and profits in the current financial
year will be below current market expectations. Nevertheless, the Directors
expect revenue for the year ended 4 March 2006 to be approximately #133m, a 90%
increase on the previous year of #70m.

Trading Prospects

The Company has now reached a platform of scale from which the Directors expect
the business to be profitable when the final stages of the integration have been
completed. With a strong pipeline of new business and a number of potential
further acquisition targets, the Directors expect the Company to continue to
grow its market share and believe that the business is well positioned to build
on this platform in the year ahead.

Blueheath Holdings plc                                     
Douglas Gurr, Chief Executive                              Tel: 020 7689 2455                          
Simon Mindham, Finance Director                            Tel: 020 7689 2464

Buchanan Communications                                    Tel: 020 7466 5000
Mark Edwards / Nicola Cronk / James Strong




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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