Sales have dipped at Eurocell, the manufacturer, recycler and distributor of window, door and roofline PVC products, in the first four months of 2023.
Down 2% compared to “a very strong equivalent period in 2022,” the company has been impacted by weakness in both the repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) and new build markets.
Meanwhile the firm has continued to experience cost inflation, particularly for electricity, and though PVC resin prices have fallen back slightly this year, they remain volatile, while feedstock prices for Eurocell’s recycling plants remain significantly higher than the comparative period in 2022.
It comes as the Construction Product Association’s (CPA) latest forecast, published earlier in May, reaffirmed a reduction in the RMI market of -9% for 2023 (unchanged from the January CPA update), but now predicts a further decline in new build to -17% (previously -11%), before both markets recover in 2024.
Taking the above factors into account, Eurocell now expects adjusted profit before tax for 2023 to come in below current market expectations.
It also anticipates a heavy weighting towards the second half of 2023 for sales and profits.
