Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC
(“MBH”, the “Company”, or the “Group”)
Half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2025
Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC (AIM: MBH), the specialist brick manufacturer and brick-fabricator, is pleased to report its half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2025.
Financial Highlights:
| 30 June 2025 | 30 June 2024 | Change | |||
| Statutory results | |||||
| Revenue | £35.8m | £35.4m | 1.1% | ||
| Gross margin | 33.6% | 36.2% | (2.6%) | ||
| Operating profit | £3.0m | £4.1m | (26.8%) | ||
| Profit before tax | £2.9m | £4.1m | (29.3%) | ||
| Basic earnings per share | 2.47p | 3.37p | (26.7%) | ||
| Cash from operations | £3.2m | £0.9m | up £2.3m | ||
| Net cash | £1.5m | £4.1m | down £2.6m | ||
| Dividend per share | 1.60p | 1.60p | – | ||
| Adjusted results* | |||||
| Adjusted EBITDA1 | £5.9m | £7.2m | (18.1%) | ||
| Adjusted operating profit | £4.0m | £5.3m | (24.5%) | ||
| Adjusted profit before tax | £3.9m | £5.3m | (26.4%) | ||
| Adjusted earnings per share | 3.30p | 4.28p | (22.9%) | ||
Strategic and Operational Highlights:
· Resilient first half of 2025, with revenue up 1.1% reflecting increased UK despatch volumes offset by very challenging markets in Europe
· Continued outperformance of UK market despatch volumes, which remain c. 25% below 2022 peak; a result of the diversity of our end markets and the quality of our products
· Order intake ahead of normalised manufacturing volumes in H1, underpinning a balanced order book profile for the start of H2
· Highly competitive pricing environment mitigated by a continued focus on collaboration with customers to support stable average selling prices
· H1 weighted capex investment of £3.8 million targeting efficiency improvements across manufacturing facilities
· Additional two-week shutdown at Carlton in January completed a substantial capex programme leading to a three million unit shortfall on the site and a one-off impact on profits in H1; normalised operating cadence re-established in H2
· Challenging market conditions in Belgium with a further 20% decline in housing activity from 2024 led to significant drop in revenue and despatches in Floren; cost reductions realised in order to mitigate current market activity levels
· Active management of input costs on a risk-based approach, with energy costs continuing to be hedged
· Strong balance sheet despite challenging markets, with net cash of £1.5 million and £20 million borrowing facility underpinning financial resilience and flexibility to pursue balanced capital allocation policy
· Declaration of interim dividend of 1.60 pence (1.60 pence H124) underlines the Board’s confidence in the outlook of the business and its focus on the importance of returns for shareholders
· Peter Sharp steps down from the Board as CEO to become industry adviser, with Ryan Mahoney formally acceding to the role of CEO as Peter’s replacement
· Rachel Warren joins the Board as the new CFO from Wincanton
Outlook
· Resilient momentum in our order intake, continuing to run ahead of manufacturing volumes
· Focus on maintaining a well-balanced forward order book and appropriate pricing in a very competitive market to support demand across our diverse end market customer base
· Decision taken to temporarily stop production at Floren in Q3 due to slow recovery in Belgium market with production expected to restart in Q4
· Continued execution of our balanced capital allocation policy focused on maintaining well invested manufacturing sites and balanced returns to shareholders through dividends and buybacks
· Despite the inflection point for market recovery remaining uncertain, the medium term fundamental market drivers for our business are encouraging and we are well positioned
· With improved trading continuing into H2, the Board expect the full year outturn for FY25 to be broadly reflective of our FY24 financial performance
Commenting on the results, Tony Morris, Chair of Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC, said:
“The timing uncertainty in the recovery of the wider UK construction industry and Belgium brick markets continues to challenge the Group. UK brick despatches remain c. 25% below the peak in 2022, whilst Belgium is some 40% below over the same period. Despite this, the Group continues to outperform the UK market in despatch volumes. Our fundamental core competency remains our significant strength in the premium end of the brick market in the UK and Benelux addressing a broad and diverse end user base.
“Given the scale of the investment to improve the production efficiency across our facilities over the last 12 months, the additional two-week shutdown at Carlton has impacted our profit metrics in the first half. As we move into the second half of the year, we are now seeing a normalised operational cadence in the UK which is supporting our commercial focus on maintaining momentum in our order intake and balanced order book. With the strength of our balance sheet and net cash position, we are positioned well to continue to trade through the ongoing challenging market conditions but we do not expect to recover the profit shortfall in the second half. As a result, and given the in trading we are seeing in H2, we expect our full year performance to be now broadly in line with FY24 before returning to growth in 2026.”
* The Directors believe that adjusted measures provide a more useful comparison of business trends and performance. Adjusted results exclude exceptional items, costs associated with acquisitions and aborted corporate transactions, and the amortisation of acquired intangibles. The term adjusted is not defined under IFRS and may not be comparable with similarly titled measures used by other companies. .Adjusted performance results are reconciled with these reported results in the Chief Executive Officer’s Statement below.
1 EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation..
An analyst briefing will be held virtually at 09:30am today. To attend, please email michelmersh@yellowjerseypr.com.
The Company also notes that it will be hosting an online presentation to retail investors at 14:00 pm today. Those wishing to join the presentation are requested to register via the following link: https:/ /engageinvestor .news/MBH_IP.