Trading Statement

Johnson Service Group PLC 13 January 2006 13 January 2006 Johnson Service Group PLC Pre-Close Trading Statement for the Year End 31 December 2005 Johnson Service Group PLC, the textile related services and facilities management Group announces the following trading update prior to entering its close period. Overall the Group has continued to trade satisfactorily during the second half of the year and, therefore, the Board expects to announce full year results in line with market expectations. The business to business divisions of the Group have performed strongly, particularly Corporatewear and Facilities Management. All the acquisitions made during the year, are being successfully integrated into the Group and are performing to plan. The remaining quarter of the Group's revenue comes from the retail sector where trading conditions remained challenging. Although no improvement in revenue was seen compared to the first half of the year, costs were successfully managed without compromising quality, enabling profitability to improve during the second half of the year. Following the preliminary results of recent tri-annual valuation of the Johnson Group Staff Pension Scheme (the Group's main defined benefit scheme) we expect the deficit on this scheme, net of taxation, calculated under IAS 19 rules, to have increased by some £11m from the position reported under FRS17 as at December 2004. The increase in the deficit largely reflects a fall in corporate bond yields and allowances made for longer life expectancy. The increased deficit will result in increased notional interest charges and additional pension costs, of approximately £1.5m per annum from 2006. The defined benefit scheme was closed to new entrants in 2002. The Group will prepare its consolidated financial statements to 31 December 2005 under UK GAAP, supplemented with pro forma IFRS financial information, rather than under IFRS as previously indicated. This is to comply with the Companies Act 1985 (as amended November 2004) and is a result of the current accounting year commencing on 26 December 2004, i.e. prior to the IFRS adoption date of 1 January 2005. We do not anticipate that this will have any substantial impact on our reported results. The Group intends to announce its preliminary results on 13 March 2006. For further information, please contact: Johnson Service Group PLC Hudson Sandler Stuart Graham, CEO Michael Sandler Jim Wilkinson, CFO Sandrine Gallien Telephone: 020 7290 0390 Telephone: 020 7796 4133 Website: johnsonplc.com For more information on the Johnson Service Group plc please view website www.johnsonplc.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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