Pipe giant sees no signs of post-Brexit slowdown

Grant Prior 8 years ago
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Polypipe has posted a strong set of results for the first half of 2016 and is confident about prospects for the rest of the year.

The UK’s largest manufacturer of plastic pipes saw underlying pre-tax profits rise to £33.7m from £23.3m last time as turnover increased to £223.3m from £170.4m.

Revenue rose strongly across the residential, commercial and infrastructure sectors.

Polypipe said: “Following the changes to the funding model for Highways England which created some hiatus during 2015, the published 2015-2020 road investment strategy programme is well under way, which is a key driver for our Civils business.

“Water management and flood prevention legislation continued to drive demand as work has commenced on more recently consented land.

“Demand in the commercial environment (which because of our split by customer type also includes high rise residential) has also been strong.

“As with Residential, we have seen development become less London centric, with a good spread around the regional cities.”

The firm has seen no signs of a slowdown since the EU Referendum.

Polypipe said: “In the first six weeks of the second half of the year (to 12th August), order intake across our business has remained consistent with the normal seasonal pattern with no discernible signs of weakening following the EU Referendum.

“We recognise that this may not be a guide to future demand, given we principally supply to professional projects, from residential extensions or renovations through to major infrastructure.

“We only receive orders for our products once construction has commenced and therefore there may be a degree of unwind if new projects do not start.

“However, despite uncertainty, we believe the fundamentals of our market and structural drivers of our business remain robust.

“Our business is extremely well balanced across the various sectors and we do not have an over reliance on any particular part of the industry.

“There have been encouraging comments from the UK Government recognising the need to keep construction moving and indicating they are prepared to loosen fiscal policy to provide the necessary funding or stimulus to do so.

“We are further encouraged by early reports from the housebuilders and commitment from the banks to maintain mortgage availability.

“Until we see evidence to suggest differently, we plan to continue with our development initiatives albeit cautiously.  

“By virtue of our production processes we are able to flex our capacity quickly, we remain alert to the economic situation and will take whatever steps are appropriate to the market conditions as they unfold.”

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