JOHN Ward yesterday had to present a dire set of Macfarlane Group (Clansman) results - the first since silver-maned company founder Lord Macfarlane handed him the chair.

But the blame could not be laid at Ward's door - the profits tumble resulted largely from an amalgamation of two subsidiaries that had been botched well before he took up the reins.

It is too early to say how much, if any, the Glasgow-based company will suffer in the longer term from Lord Macfarlane's retirement.

What is almost certain is that full-year profits will be down on 1997. Macfarlane's attempts to diversify its bottle closures manufacturing beyond the whisky industry, where Lord Macfarlane was well connected, could come slightly unstuck because of the Russian crisis.

The strong pound will continue to make life difficult because it enables overseas competitors to undercut UK companies on price. And the whisky industry, following the merger of

Guinness and GrandMet and other consolidation, has much more purchasing clout.

The City had become accustomed to steady earnings growth from Macfarlane so it is not surprising that, when the recent troubles came, the company's stock fell so heavily from grace.

But investors who have seen the value of their Macfarlane shareholdings slashed in recent months should not be devoid of optimism.

The share price might struggle to recover in the short term but, looking further ahead, Ward and his team have some fairly sensible ideas to strengthen Macfarlane's position in a fiercely competitive sector.

The move to lock in margins by selling more of Macfarlane's own wares through the merchanting division is a shrewd one, as is the idea of providing logistics solutions where clients will pay Macfarlane a premium for supplying packaging and

distributing their raw materials and output.

And Ward is determined to harness the entrepreneurial design expertise within Macfarlane, which has produced imitation wood from polystyrene waste.

But there is a view in the City that Macfarlane has been complacent and that it could have done more, and sooner, with its innovative closures business. And much will depend on the choice of a new chief executive.

It is probably not the time to buy into Macfarlane. But it's not the time to sell either.