But firm bemoans delay of scheme until April next year

Analysts are expecting full year profit at Ibstock to be down by as much as a quarter after the brickwork firm said brick sales were fell by more than 20% in the third quarter.

ibstock site

The firm said brick sales were down more than 20% in the third quarter and had cut production as a result

In a gloomy trading update this morning, the firm said sales during the period were down 22% with the firm adding that production had been cut by 20% from the half year as a result.

And chief executive Joe Hudson admitted that the subdued trading had continued into October. “We have responded by reducing production to manage inventory, taking further cost action and maintaining tight control of cash,” he added.

Ibstock said EBITDA would now be around the mid-£40m range which in a note broker Investec said “implies a c.25%+ cut to consensus expectations and we would not be surprised to see a similar or even bigger cut to FY27”.

Investec, which called the profit warning “severe”, added: “Volumes are down much more than had been expected.”

In its update, Ibstock said: “The Group has continued to implement cost reduction and cash management initiatives, focused primarily on overhead and discretionary expenditure. These measures will partially mitigate the impact of lower sales and production volumes.”

Ibstock said the government’s recently announced Your First Home initiative was welcome but added “the delay to its introduction until April 2027 is disappointing and has put additional pressure on near-term demand”.