Headlam has seen a weaker than normal seasonal uplift in November, following lower UK residential sales.
It says trading since its previous results in September has continued the patterns seen then: ‘most notably, the impact of the cost of living crisis suppressing market volumes in the UK residential sector, with growth in the commercial sector helping to partially offset. Continental Europe continued its positive performance across both sectors.
‘As a result of progress made under the company’s growth strategy, including new larger customer wins and the trade counter roll out, and support from price inflation, the company’s revenue was only marginally below the prior year period for the 10 months to 31 October. To date in November 2022, a month heavily reliant on residential orders, the company has seen a seasonal uplift but this is below historic levels and this trend is expected to continue until year end.’
It says it now expects underlying profitability for the year to remain ahead of 2021 but to be marginally below the low end of the range of market expectations [of about £33m].
