50% rise in Kingspan first-half profits
Kingspan has reported a 50% rise in the first half of this year to to €154 million.
A 19% rise in revenue between January and June to €1.47bn was spurred by a markedly improved activity across Central Europe, North America, and the UK in the past year.
For the Republic of Ireland, there was a more than 47% jump in revenue to almost €60m, while the UK remained the company’s single most important market, with revenues of €410m in the six-month period.
Kingspan said acquisitions made a notable contribution to its growth during the period, while there was a 26% rise in sales of its insulated panels worldwide.
Chief executive Gene Murtagh confirmed that the results were the company’s “strongest ever” six-month performance, driven by organic growth and contributions from acquisitions, Joris Ide and Vicwest.
”The expansion in profit margin has helped deliver a 50 per cent increase in trading profit,” he said, “and with good order intake momentum in the second quarter continuing into the current trading period, we expect a solid performance in the second half.”
The group noted that the Irish market continued its recovery during the first half of the year with volumes significantly ahead of the same period last year.
In its biggest market, continental Europe, growth was solid in Germany,France and the Netherlands, while Belgium was flat.
British sales were in the “mid single digit levels” but orders were slightly ahead of that rate. Revenues in the Americas rose 15 per cent.
