Marshalls plc sees revenues drop in difficult housing market

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Construction products firm Marshalls plc has seen revenues fall as it became the latest company to feel the effects of the housing downturn.

The Yorkshire firm has released a trading update for the first four months of the year in which group revenue was down by 10% cent on a like-for-like basis at £199m. Marshalls said the performance reflected lower demand in new build and private housing.

The biggest hit came in Marshall’s landscape products division, where revenue was down by 15%, while the building products division fell 3% and roofing revenues reduced by 8%. But Marshalls said that it further increased its share of the UK brick market in the first quarter of 2024 and was also seeing growth in solar power products.

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The company added that it had reduced group debt to £175m at the end of April, and had reassigned chief operating officer Simon Bourne to a role of chief commercial officer as part of a strategy shift.

The company said: “The board continues to expect a modest recovery in the second half of the year predicated on a progressive improvement in the macro-economic environment. Against this backdrop and given the decisive management actions taken to reduce capacity and the cost base in 2023, the board remains confident that profit in 2024 will be in-line with its previous expectations and at similar levels to 2023.”

Marshalls, which is based at Elland, near Huddersfield, was formed in the 1880s

Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber

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