Kingspan said that sales in the nine months to 30 September were €1.14 billion, up 30% on last year, or up 14% excluding acquisitions.
This growth was attributed to “market penetration, refurbishment and geographic expansion” rather than any rise in construction work, which was actually slowing. “Building activity in our markets globally has eased in recent months due largely to persistent economic uncertainty, particularly in the EU,” the company said. Quotation levels and order intake levels both fell slightly during the third quarter. The non-residential project pipeline grew slightly, however, “which points towards positive medium term activity”.
Margins have gradually improved during the year as the earlier spikes in material increases have been recovered, combined with some easing of costs in the third quarter.
Kingspan said that UK activity levels had “remained resilient overall, against an uncertain economic backdrop, reflecting the wide range of end use activities of our product range”.
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