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Howden Joinery Group PLC on Thursday said it was ‘well placed to outperform our competitors’ as it reported a profit that beat expectations and proposed a higher dividend. The London-based kitchen and hardware supplier said pretax profit climbed 5.1% to £344.9 million in the financial year ended December 27, from £328.1 million in 2024. It beat the upper end of the company-compiled consensus range of £322 million to £343 million. Revenue rose 4.1% to £2.42 billion from £2.32 billion, higher than consensus of £2.40 billion, which had a range of £2.38 billion to £2.44 billion. Operating profit was up 4.7% at £355.3 million from £339.2 million, easily beating the consensus of £342 million and climbing past the upper end of the consensus range of £332 million to £351 million. The company proposed a final dividend of 16.9p, up 3.7% from 16.3p a year prior. That brings the total payout for financial 2025 to 21.9p, in line with the Financial Times-cited consensus, and up 3.3% from 21.2p a year ago. Looking ahead, Howden Joinery said its current year-to-date trading has been in line with its own expectations, adding it was on track to meet current market expectations for financial year 2026. It cited a current analysts’ consensus forecast pretax profit of between £345 million to £383 million, with an average of £354 million. The average would be a rise of 2.6% from financial 2025. The company said that the Republic of Ireland is establishing itself as a ‘strong competitor in our categories’. Further, it said that it expects the UK kitchen market to be level year-on-year, after several years of decline in what remains a competitive marketplace. ‘We believe our model is the right one to address the medium-term opportunities in our markets. We are well prepared for the year ahead and well placed to outperform our competitors,’ the firm said. Howden Joinery shares jumped 6.4% to 911.00 pence each on Thursday morning in London. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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