By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 23 May 2023
LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Energy-efficient and low-maintenance building products specialist Epwin Group described positive trading in an update on Tuesday, with current revenue running 3% higher than last year, which it said was already a strong performance.
The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said it had continued to trade well, in line with the board's expectations.
While noting that inflationary pressures had affected raw material costs, particularly PVC resin, over the past two years, Epwin said the pressures had eased slightly.
However, PVC resin prices remained elevated, requiring the group to manage labour and other inflationary cost pressures effectively.
The company also reported a favourable financial position, with low net debt and a strong cash flow performance.
Epwin said it had more than £50m of headroom on its banking facilities, indicating a solid financial foundation to support its growth plans.
"The medium and long-term drivers of the group's end markets remain positive, with a shortage of new and affordable housing, an ageing and poorly maintained housing stock and increasing concern about the quality of social housing all helping to bolster future demand," said chairman Andrew Eastgate.
"Additionally, the group's products have inherently strong environmental credentials which have a clear role to play in the decarbonisation of the UK housing stock which will be required to meet net zero ambitions.
"The board will update shareholders further in our half year trading update in August."
At 1416 BST, shares in Epwin Group were up 1.64% at 68.1p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.