Record first quarter for Grenfell insulation firm Kingspan

Materials firm Kingspan said it enjoyed a record first quarter with sales up by nearly half during the period.

In a trading update, the firm said revenue in the three months to the end of March rose 47% to €1.89bn (£1.6bn). Group sales of €1.89bn for the three-month period to 31 March were 47% ahead of the previous year.

But it warned: “Raw material inflation which had eased considerably at the turn of the year has returned sharply over the past six weeks and the associated recovery effort is ongoing.”

It added: “By market during the first quarter, Europe was strongly ahead overall, the Americas had a positive start to the year with a very encouraging pipeline in North America and robust order intake activity recently in Latin America. Australasia, which was subdued for most of last year, is looking better as we move through 2022.”

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Kingspan said net debt at the end of March was €905m (£762m) while the firm has in excess of €2.1bn (£1.76bn) in cash and undrawn committed facilities.

The firm is due to release its interim results on 19 August.

The trading update comes off the back of the Ireland-based insulation firm increasing its pre-tax profit for the year to 31 December to €689m, up from €459m the previous year. In February it also reported a 42% increase in revenue to €6.5bn.

The group’s Kooltherm K15 product hit the headlines after it emerged a small amount of it had been installed on Grenfell Tower. Kingspan later denied the firm had acted in a dangerous way when it emerged it had continued to sell Kooltherm K15 insulation for 14 years using a safety test certificate for a previous version of the product.

The firm was also forced to recall batches of its Kooltherm K15 product last month after being hit by a notice from the Office for Product Safety and Standards. It was initially found to meet a lower fire safety performance rating than advertised, although Kingspan said the material passed later tests and it is confident there is no product safety issue.