11th Sep 2019 09:33
(Alliance News) - Epwin Group PLC on Wednesday reported a "robust" performance in what it said was a difficult market in the first half of 2019.
Epwin makes products such as PVC windows, doors, and fascia systems, and also produces cladding, guttering, and decking.
For the six months to June, pretax profit rose 16% to GBP6.7 million, on broadly flat revenue of GBP140.0 million. Adjusted pretax profit climbed 7.4% to GBP7.3 million.
Epwin has increased the interim dividend to 1.75 pence, from 1.70p the year before.
The company said revenue met expectations, with strong demand in the first quarter driven by new customer wins and Brexit-related stockpiling. However, this unwound in the second quarter. Like-for-like revenue was up 0.5%, against a "strong" comparative.
"The group delivered a robust trading performance in the first half of 2019, in line with expectations in what continues to be challenging market conditions. We have made good strategic progress on all fronts," commented Chief Executive Jon Bednall.
"Operationally, our site consolidation programme has continued to plan, including important steps forward on our new warehousing and finishing facility in Telford, where the transactions will significantly reduce the group's debt. We also successfully exited from our Northampton glass-sealed unit manufacturing operations."
Since the end of June, Epwin's trading has met expectations, the price increases mitigating "significant" cost inflation during 2017 and 2018. Epwin sees adjusted pretax profit for 2019 meeting market expectations.
"Despite the external environment, the board remains confident the actions it is taking to strengthen the group's position by consolidating the footprint of its manufacturing operations and focusing it towards the higher margin extrusion and moulding operations, which have technological and investment barriers to entry, will deliver an improving financial performance," said Epwin.
Shares were 3.2% higher on Wednesday morning at a price of 78.0 pence each.
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