Covid erodes Kingspan rival's Irish earnings

SIG's Irish profits tumbled last year due to Covid disruptions.

UK building materials and insulation group SIG – a chief rival of Cavan-based group Kingspan – has reported a huge erosion of profit in its Irish-based operations due to the havoc caused by Covid disruptions.

SIG said the underlying operating profit for its Irish business amounted to just £800,000 (€930,000) at the end of 2020 – down from a profit of just under £7m in 2019.

It said its Irish underlying revenues fell by just over 15% to £80.5m.

On a group basis, SIG – which, apart from the UK and Ireland, operates in France, Germany, Poland and the Benelux countries – said its annual revenues fell 13% to £1.9bn, while its full-year losses widened to £202.3m, versus almost £113m 12 months earlier.

CEO Steve Francis said SIG saw a “solid” second half last year, and has begun to return to growth.

SIG said trading to date this year is “in line with management expectations” and that a return to profitability and cash generation is expected during the second half of this year.

It said continued uncertainty remains regarding Covid disruptions but that it is seeing good home improvement and repair work growth, particularly in the UK and France.

Earlier this month, SIG rival Kingspan – which this week agreed to acquire Danish insulation specialist Logstor for €253m – reported a 2% decline in annual revenues to €4.6bn, but a 2% increase in trading profit to just over €508m.

A sale of SIG's insulation business to Kingspan collapsed last year.