Construction BUSINESS

Building materials company, Kingspan has seen a strong start to the year, but the group has said it was seeing an easing in orders in the UK due to uncertainty over Brexit.

In an interim management statement ahead of its AGM today, the company said this reflected a combination of solid underlying markets, a positive margin performance and the benefits of acquisitions made during 2015.

The Co Cavan-based firm said its group sales came to €903.1m for the four months to the end of April, up 25% ahead of the same time last year.

Kingspan said there has been an “understandable easing” in order placement in the UK non-residential segments in advance of the June referendum on membership of the European Union.

But it added that beyond that, the project pipeline is “encouragingly” ahead of this time last year.

In the US, Kingspan said that the market is solid overall, with insulation board sales there very robust at a time when it is investing in additional capacity.

It also said that its operations in the Netherlands and France have been particularly strong performers with Germany and Eastern Europe also very solid.

Meanwhile, Kingspan said that the Nordic region is progressing well in advance of the commissioning of an insulated panels facility in Finland adjacent to its existing insulation boards plant.

“Overall, the group is in good shape and the combination of recent development activity, organic expansion and our relentless focus on innovation positions the group well for the years ahead,” today’s statement said.

Kingspan was founded in 1965 by Eugene Murtagh as an engineering business known then as Kingscourt Construction. Today, the group is a global leader in high performance insulation, building fabric, and solar integrated building envelopes.