UK market volumes for bricks significantly down in last year
Brickability expects its full-year profit for 2024 to be towards the lower end of current market expectations after low demand over the past 12 months.
In a trading update, the construction materials distributor said that UK despatches for bricks in the calendar year 2023 were approximately 30% lower than the year prior.
The business said these lower levels of demand were “likely to persist through to the end of the current financial year”.
Prior to the announcements, analysts had predicted the company’s full year adjusted EBITDA would be between £46.2m and £47.2m for the year to March, compared with the £51.5m it recorded in the previous year.
The trading update pointed to an “encouraging” trend down in inflation and an expected fall in interest rates but added that trading conditions were “expected to remain challenging for longer than initially anticipated”.
Alan Simpson, chief executive officer, said: “The short-term factors impacting our businesses are well publicised, however, we are very excited by some of the opportunities we are seeing in the market.
>> Profit up at Brickability despite hit to revenue
“We continue to make further progress on our strategy, which includes diversifying the Group through differentiated product offerings and acquiring higher margin revenue streams, the benefits of which we are already seeing.”
While the brick market languished, Brickability said its distribution business had traded well “despite the slowing of private housebuilding and residential RMI markets” and that its sustainable products business, Upowa, was benefitting from regulatory drivers in new build housing.
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