A PROFITS warning hit the shares in Johnson & Firth Brown yesterday by

7[1/2]p, knocking them down to 40[1/2]p.

The engineers warned that lower than expected orders would result in

second half profits being below the #2.07m seen in the first six mnths

which in turn were 38% down on a year earlier.

Chairman Martin Llowarch (above), former chief executive of British

Steel and also chairman of Transport Development, had warned in June

that the light engineering activities had had a weak half year with

orders few and far between and margins under pressure.

Since then the order book had not only failed to pick up but had

actually got worse amd is currently at lower levels than a few months

ago across the whole group.

However, the company is still trading profitably.