Office construction boosts prospects for Hull manufacturer
THE UK’s “upward cycle” in office construction promises a strong couple of years for Hull-based manufacturer Kingspan Access Floors.
The manufacturer is part of Kingspan Group, the Irish building products company based in Co Cavan, which has announced a “strong year of profit growth”. It saw profits rise 21% to £110m on revenues of £1.4bn in 2014.
Gene Murtagh, chief executive of Kingspan said: “We are very pleased to report another strong year of profit growth at Kingspan, helped particularly by double-digit growth in our UK and North American businesses.
“Conditions in our core markets are improving, and our activity pipeline starting the new year is encouraging. We are delivering on our strategic goal of broadening our geographic base through acquisitions, and will focus intensively this year on the integration of the companies acquired in 2014.”
Kingspan Access Floors manufactures and installs raised access flooring systems and its East Yorkshire facility has capacity to produce more than 300,000 units each week.
The Access Floors division, which is focused in the UK and North America, saw profits rise 12%, to £13.4m, although revenues increased only marginally, up 1% to £114.5m.
Mr Murtagh added: “2014 was a year characterised by solid data centre related activity in North America compensating for stubbornly lethargic office construction activity. This is in stark contrast to the UK market that appears to be midway through an upward cycle in office construction.
“The latter is likely to lead to notable growth in Access Floor applications through 2015 and 2016 given the late cycle nature of when flooring is installed.”
