Another company testing my patience is Metalrax. Like French Connection it’s just published its half-year results, like French Connection it’s announced a loss, and like French Connection one half of the business is misfiring, while the other prospers.

Broken companies don’t recover the moment an investor buys share in them, so patience is a virtue. When I add a company to the Thrifty 30, I intend to hold it for at least three years because recoveries take time and rarely draw a straight line on a price chart.

However, since May last year, the date I added Metalrax, the company’s shares have drawn a straight line. In the wrong direction. Investors have lost confidence. I can see why.

What worries me about Metalrax’s half-year results is what’s not said. The company blames the familiar cash-strapped consumer for not buying its bakeware, but Metalrax has lost a big contract with Morrisons.

Someone is supplying Morrisons with pans, my guess is cheap foreign imports. Whoever it is,   Metalrax is struggling to compete, and has been for years.

Perhaps I shouldn’t dwell on pans, Metalrax has a number of specialist engineering businesses which accounted for 72% of revenues in the first half. These companies manufacture chassis assemblies and door frames for cars,  industrial handles and hinges, and electrical safety equipment.

With the exception of Premier Architectural Metalwork, which Metalrax is winding down, they are performing better, but its biggest specialist engineering business is Cooper Coated Coil, which supplies pre-coated materials to the bakeware industry, non-stick coatings for pots, pans and baking trays, as well as other domestic and industrial sectors.

Cooper grew export sales marginally in the first half, but customers in the UK are struggling, two of which are surely George Wilkinson, which lost the Morrison’s contract and is being restructured, and Samuel Groves another Metalrax bakeware manufacturer that supplies professional caterers and retailers.

The bakeware side of the business probably earns half or more of the business, and I wonder when it was last profitable.