Insider Media Limited

The impact from the eurozone crisis and delayed orders will prevent Coventry-based taxi manufacturer Manganese Bronze Holdings from achieving a profit at its latest year-end.

The company told the Stock Exchange this morning that sales of its TX4 taxis had dropped to 328 in the final quarter of 2011, compared with 384 in the comparable 20110 period.

For the year ending 31 December, UK sales fell to 1,502, a 9.1 per cent decline on its total 2010 revenue.

Manganese Bronze attributed the fall to the unresolved eurozone sovereign debt crisis and its potential impact on banks.

The crisis has "undermined confidence within the global banking community and made it more difficult to secure finance for international trade", said the company.

Manganese Bronze said it received an irrevocable documentary credit on 29 December 2011 to cover the last 500 vehicles of the Azerbaijan order of 1,000 taxis which were originally due to be shipped in October 2011.

"The overall impact of lower UK sales and the delayed fulfilment of the Azerbaijan order will prevent the group from achieving a profitable result for the year ended 31 December 2011," confirmed the company.

"Whilst a proportion of this shortfall should be recovered when the delayed Azerbaijan sales are recorded in 2012, any continued softening of global economic conditions would mean that the group is likely to fall short of meeting expectations for the current year."