Interim figures to 30 September from Weeks were something of a disappointment, with pressure on margins culling pre-tax profits by 20% to £503,000, down from £628,000 last year, on sales 5.6% healthier at just over £9m. Chairman Dr Alan Weeks explained that an earlier decision to split the company into two identifiable businesses, Weeks Consulting and Weeks Laboratories, had 'been successful'. Followers of the company will also have been buoyed by news of a 'significant contract' win, to be carried out between now and August 2002. Alan Weeks commented that the deal would support the board's view that the 'traditionally busier first half of the year will be less pronounced in the current year'. Weeks' skills include construction materials testing, the solution of landslip and ground water control problems as well as expertise in pavement engineering and subsidence. As recently as October, it snapped up topographical building and hydrographic surveyor Colin Wykes Associates, enhancing its expertise in its surveying division.