Ibstock builds on UK housing shortage

Britain's housing shortage and high demand for clay bricks helped Ibstock record a 12% rise in full year adjusted pre-tax profits to £88.3m.

Revenues rose 3.9% to £451.6m. Statutory pre-tax profits fell to £83.4m from £110.9m, reflecting a 2016 exceptional non-cash credit of £30.3m after the closure of Ibstock's defined benefit pension scheme.

The total dividend was lifted 18.1% to 9.1p a share.

Ibstock said it was ready to ramp up brick production this year as its new factory in Leicestershire came on stream. The plant will provide 100m bricks of additional supply to the UK market by 2019.

Outgoing chief executive Wayne Sheppard, who will be stepping down after the appointment of Joe Hudson, said the “fundamentals of a housing shortage and strong government commitment to increase housebuilding volumes remain robust and strongly support our UK businesses”.

“During 2017, UK brick demand exceeded supply, manufacturers destocked and import levels increased.”

“Consequently the investments we have made to increase capacity in both brick and roof tiles have been well-timed and our customers value this additional capacity. We therefore expect a margin improvement of 1-2 percentage points for our UK brick business in 2018.”