“Strong trading” has seen revenue rise at Breedon, the construction materials group, with full year results now anticipated to be slightly above the top end of current market expectations.
Reporting on its performance for the 10 months to 31 October 2021, group revenue has grown to £1,045m at Breedon, up 31% versus the same period in 2019.
Like-for-like revenue, meanwhile, increased 15% on the same period in 2019.
Breedon said: “Breedon has continued to benefit from strong end markets, with demand levels remaining encouraging across the group. Trends evident in the first half have persisted with momentum in residential housebuilding and infrastructure spending continuing to drive volume growth. Ireland continued to gain traction during the second half following the lifting of Government restrictions on non-essential construction.
“Pricing actions have increasingly reflected the dynamic cost environment and our layered hedging policy has delivered visibility of energy and carbon costs. As indicated in July, allowing for the natural lag to implement price adjustments, we have secured full cost recovery in the second half, leading to margin improvement.
“Underlying EBIT performance for the 2021 full year will now be stronger than we expected and, assuming no adverse weather events, will be slightly above the upper end of the range of market expectations.”
As at 23 November, market expectations for Underlying EBIT for the full year 2021 were an average of £129m with a range of £122m to £131m.
Breedon continued: “The recovery we experienced in the first half of 2021 has been sustained, with supply chain disruption managed effectively by our local teams who have stayed close to their customers and suppliers.”
