17th Aug 2021 09:19
(Alliance News) - Genuit Group PLC on Monday labelled its second half outlook as "encouraging" after returning to pre-pandemic profit and revenues in the first half of 2021.
The Doncaster, South Yorkshire-based company, which was previously called Polypipe, manufactures water, climate and ventilation systems for use in residential, commercial, civil and infrastructure settings.
Genuit generated pretax profit of GBP33.8 million in the six months that ended June 30, up 7.6% from pre-pandemic results in 2019 of GBP31.4 million. Its half-year pretax profit in 2020 was GBP2.3 million.
Interim revenue totalled GBP295.6 million, up 32% from GBP223.3 million in 2019. Revenue for the same period last year was GBP173.6 million.
Particularly, revenue in the company's commercial and infrastructure systems improved by 19% compared to 2019 and 8.3% year-on-year, reaching GBP111.8 million.
"Sales of ventilation products have benefited from the increased focus on the importance of fresh air in the workspace," said Genuit.
The FTSE 250 company increased its prices in the first half to stay level with the costs of raw materials and transport, as labour supply constraints caused inflation.
It warned that it is not out of the woods yet, but is continuing action in the second half of 2021 to further mitigate the constraints.
The company declared an interim dividend of 4.0 pence per share, in line with 2019. It declared no interim dividend in 2020.
"I am delighted with the group's performance in the first half with strong revenue and profit growth in recovering markets, despite cost headwinds. This reflects good organic trading as well as the contribution from our three recent acquisitions, which are performing well," said Chief Executive Martin Payne.
Genuit's most recent acquisition was underfloor heating specialist Nu-Heat Ltd for GBP27.0 million in early February.
Payne added: "The alignment of our group strategy around sustainability and environmental drivers as well as strong market demand has seen momentum continue into the second half and the board expects full year performance to be ahead of previous management expectations."
Shares in Genuit were up 2.9% at 667.00 pence in London on Tuesday morning trading.
By Josie O'Brien; [email protected]
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