New Autoclenz boss buys in after results

Autoclenz's new chairman James Leek has topped up his holding in the car valeter the day after it announced it fell into losses on the back of difficulties across the automotive sector.

He bought 50,000 at 22p a time, taking his holding to 905,000, which amounts to 8.7% of the company.

He was joined by non-executive director Michael Stone, who took 49,598 at 21p a go.

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In yesterday's results, adjusted profit before tax was £0.9m (2007: £1.55m) but on a pre-tax level, the group fell into losses of £246,000 versus £393,000 profit last year. Sales improved 3.5% to £27.97m.

The group said it has been a challenging year with the effects of the recession increasingly impacting its revenue from the automotive sector particularly during the last quarter.

"I am pleased to report that despite the increasingly difficult market conditions, these results are slightly ahead of stockbrokers forecasts issued after our trading update in August 2008," said Leek

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