(Alliance News) - Kingspan Group PLC on Friday said profit increased in 2020, thanks to some cost reductions.
The Irish building materials company's reported revenue was down 1.8% to EUR4.58 billion for 2020 from EUR4.66 billion for 2019. On a constant currency basis, though, revenue was in line with the prior year, Kingspan noted.
Insulated Panels sales decreased by 4% in 2020 due mainly to second quarter lows. Insulation Boards sales decreased by 10% in the year as a whole, but they improved in the second half, down just 2% annually in that period.
Another year of progress was seen in the Light & Air division, Kingspan said, with sales up 36% in the year, thanks to the acquisition of Colt.
Water & Energy sales came in down 3% year-on-year, with a resilient performance overall and margin improvement.
Data & Flooring sales increased by 4% in 2020, Kingspan said, with strong performance across data centre applications offsetting softer office activity.
Pretax profit rose 1.2% to EUR459.7 million from EUR454.4 million year-on-year.
"Continued cost discipline helped us to deliver a small increase in trading profit despite the decline in revenue, and our organic and acquisition-led expansion of the business remains an ongoing focus," explained Chief Executive Gene Murtagh.
Going forward, Murtagh added: "2021 has started well, with performance helped by the strong backlog of activity from last year. Raw material price inflation is a significant ongoing issue to manage, but sentiment across our end markets is positive."
Kingspan also said it appointed Eimear Moloney as an independent non-executive director and Paul Murtagh as a non-executive director, both with effect from April 30.
Moloney was previously a senior investment manager in Zurich Life Assurance (Irl) PLC, managing asset allocation and various geographic equity portfolios.
Paul Murtagh is the chair & CEO of Tibidabo Scientific Industries Ltd, and was formerly the chair & CEO of Faxitron Bioptics LLC.
Neither Moloney nor Paul Murtagh hold any shares in the company, Kingspan noted.
Kingspan shares were trading 2.1% higher in London on Friday at EUR58.20 each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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