THE recently-appointed managing director of Ultraframe has spent almost £10,000 on buying shares in the company.

Nick Gales's purchase of a stake in the Clitheroe company this week came after heavy falls in Ultraframe's share price.

Mr Gale bought 2,800 shares at £3.54 -- a total cost of £9,912.

The shares fell more than 12 per cent at the beginning of the week after the firm warned that the wettest winter on record and costs of overseas expansion would hit profits.

It expects six-monthly pre-tax profits to fall from around £10.5m to "not less than £9m".

Despite the profit warning the firm stressed that sales and orders were currently running at high levels.

Mr Gale, 41, was appointed as managing director of Ultraframe UK and as an executive director of the stock market-quoted company in January.

He was formerly a divisional managing director at Kingspan plc, the European cladding and insulation specialists, where he was responsible for the £150million turnover building products division, employing 550 people.