Home improvements boom helps landscape products group Marshalls to record first half

The group said it had enjoyed strong trading and healthy order books over the half year ended June 30.

Marshalls said: "There continues to be strong demand for DIY projects with consumers spending more time at home and choosing to invest in home and garden projects.

"Many households have benefited from higher disposable incomes due to lower commuting costs and lower cash outflows on other things, including holidays. The GfK consumer confidence index has been improving steadily during 2021 and has now returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.

"Our domestic strategy is to develop the customer experience by digitalisation, including the use of visualisation tools, and to promote and invest in innovation. We continue to drive more sales through the Marshalls Register of approved domestic installers."

Marshalls said its national manufacturing network and logistics efficiency had enabled it to operate flexibly during the pandemic.

Group revenue for the six months was £298.1 million, which is 42 per cent ahead of the 2020 comparative. This represents an increase of 6 per cent compared with the same period in 2019, which was the last comparative period which was unaffected by COVID-19.

Commenting on these results, Martyn Coffey, the chief executive, said: “Trading continues to improve and recent order intake has been good. The Construction Products Association’s recent summer forecast predicts year on year increases in UK market volumes of 13.7 per cent in 2021 and 6.3 per cent in 2022 and the group expects to meet or outperform the market.

"Market conditions remain supportive, despite certain supply chain challenges, which are leading to inflationary pressures across the sector. The underlying indicators in our main growth markets, including new build housing, road, rail and water management, remain positive.

"As a result, we remain confident that our strategy will deliver long-term profitable growth and that we are well positioned to cope with the temporary challenges associated with cost and material supply issues."

"Encouraged by the continuing strength in demand and the positive trading environment, the board is confident of making further progress and is accordingly raising its expectations for 2021 and 2022.”

Commenting on its operational performance, Marshalls said: "We have seen strong order books and, consistent with the rest of the construction sector, have experienced the

heightened operational challenge brought upon with increased demand for Marshalls products.

"The group’s national network of concrete manufacturing sites and quarries has continued to support a flexible operating framework, which has enabled us to manage supply and demand across the network and to control lead times as far as possible.

"There have been periods when cement has been on supply allocation and reduced raw material availability has required proactive management to ensure the continued supply of packaging, steel, timber and aggregates.

"The short supply of sea freight containers has also caused transport costs to increase significantly.

"Our objective continues to be to mitigate inflation by using dynamic and alternative solutions to ensure operational continuity and cost control. However, raw material shortages across the construction sector and reduced numbers of HGV drivers within the third party haulage market are causing costs to increase which we are recovering successfully through price increases.

"We continue to benefit from having our own vehicle fleet, which covers a substantial proportion of deliveries, and our aim is to increase logistics efficiency and vehicle utilisation."

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