Safestyle outperforms the market as sales soar

The Bradford-based PVC window and door maker also said it has made a strong start to 2016 and is confident of building on the progress made in 2015.

Revenue for the year to December 31 jumped 9.5 per cent to £149m and the group said it has made good progress on pre-tax profits which should be in line with consensus market expectations of £17.6m, up from £16.4m the year before.

A strong performance in the second half produced double-digit growth in both sales and profit.

Steve Birmingham, CEO of Safestyle UK, said: “I am pleased to report that trading over the year has been robust. We have continued to heavily outperform the market, thanks to the quality of our product range, the attractiveness of our finance offer and the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts.”

Analyst Charlie Campbell at Liberum said: “Industry data suggests that industry volumes were down seven per cent in 2015, and we estimate that Safestyle achieved volume growth of over four per cent.

“We believe that four main factors explain the significant outperformance delivered by Safestyle. Firstly, significant cost advantage over the competition allowing it to sell for around 20 per cent less; secondly, the roll out of the business into the South; thirdly, the success of a new low-cost finance offer and fourthly, the weak position of its competitors.”

Analyst Matthew McEachran​ at N+1 Singer added: “​Safestyle saw trading performance accelerate in ​the second half​ and the dilutive effects of credit in the mix have not been as significant as anticipated. The beat at the gross profit line has been mostly reinvested in marketing and brand repositioning in ​2015​, but this is unlikely to be ongoing in the new financial year.”

​​Safestyle said that against the backdrop of a weaker market, the roll-out of its consumer finance offer helped to drive growth.