Grenfell insulation firm Kingspan expects jump in profit and sales

Kingspan has told the stock market that it is expecting a large increase in sales and trading profit for the first half of the year.

The insulation firm, which hit the headlines after it emerged one of its products was used on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, released a brief trading update today.

The firm said it is expecting sales for the first half of 2020 to be around €2.9bn, this is an increase of 39% from the €2.08bn posted for the same period in 2020. Trading profit is also expected to increase 57% from €200m to €315m over the same period.

The group, which reported turnover of €4.6bn in 2020, said: “Most key markets are strongly ahead of the first half of 2020 and indeed the first half of 2019. We reported in April that we had a strong order backlog at that point, and this has grown further in the period since.”

The company warned however that raw material inflation “has continued at record levels”.

Kingspan, which has its headquarters in Ireland, has been criticised extensively after it emerged the firm’s Kooltherm K15 foam board insulation was used on a small area of Grenfell Tower, which burned down in June 2017 killing 72 people, although the product was never specified.

The Grenfell Inquiry heard from a former Kingspan project manager in November last year that the insulation product installed had been using a fire test report for a different product.

Kingspan has said its product was used without its knowledge “in a system that was not compliant with the building regulations and was unsafe”. It said it has full confidence in the safety of its K15 product when used in a compliant system following extensive testing. The company in February outlined a number of actions it has taken to improve its governance, management and traceability of products, in response to the inquiry proceedings.

See also:

> Kingspan technical adviser did not see Grenfell insulation test reports, inquiry hears

> Kingspan appoints lawyers to aid post-Grenfell reform of insulation business