Shares in Superglass, a maker of glass-fibre insulation for buildings, slumped last week following the company’s second profits warning since January and investor nervousness about its exposure to the UK’s anaemic housing market.

The Stirling-based company floated at 180p a share on July 12 last year and the shares rose that day to 208.5p.

However, on Tuesday the shares crashed by 25p to 44p after the company said 2008 profits would be lower than expected due to disappointing take-up of government home insulation subsidies.

The company is also facing increased costs. Its energy-intensive process includes melting glass in furnaces heated to 1,400C.

The firm said it will introduce a cost-reduction programme to include 30 job losses, improved operational efficiencies and lower energy use.

Chief executive John Smellie believes the share price has been unfairly hit by a misconception that Superglass will be hit by the housing market slump. He points out the firm is only 13 per cent dependent on the new-build market and mainly supplies small, independent builders. “We are almost at a loss as to how to get the share price to go up,” he said.

Superglass is now worth just £25.6m, barely a quarter of its valuation when it floated.

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