Alumasc Group PLC on Tuesday said interim profit fell due to lower underlying profit in its Building Envelope division.

The supplier of building and engineering products recorded a pretax profit of £5.1 million in the six months to December 31. This represented a 7.3% decrease from £5.5 million a year before.

Revenue rose by 1.6% to £46.3 million from £45.6 million the year before, but cost of sales increased by 4.9% to £30.3 million from £28.9 million.

Revenue in the comparison period benefited from £2.5 million of business deferred from the year before due to Covid-19. Excluding this benefit, revenue would have been up 7.5% in the recent half-year, the company noted.

Alumasc said it saw input cost inflation, some of which it was able to pass-through to customers. Even so, underlying operating margin narrowed to 11.9% from 13.6%.

Underlying operating profit in Alumasc’s Building Envelope division fell by 65% to £881,000 from £2.5 million the year before.

The Kettering, England-based company explained that Covid-19 slowed down new-build commercial market projects, which particularly affected Levolux, the solar shading systems supplying business in the division.

‘This depressed the order intake in the first half to a position significantly lower than was anticipated,’ it added.

Alumasc increased its dividend 3.1% to 3.35 pence from 3.25p in the comparable period a year prior.

The company explained that the slightly bigger payout reflects its ‘encouraging’ first-half performance. Furthermore, this speaks to the company’s confidence in the ‘strength’ of its strategy and its future prospects, Alumasc added.

The building and engineering products supplier said it is on track to deliver against its full-year expectations.

Looking ahead, Alumasc is planning to recover Levolux’s financial performance. The business is well-positioned to recover, as levels of customer enquiries are increasing, the company said. Additionally, the business is actively pursuing several significant opportunities.

‘Alumasc reported a solid performance during the first half and is on track to deliver its expectations for the full year,’ Chief Executive Paul Hooper said. ‘Although there were some headwinds experienced due to Covid-19 driven contract delays and cost inflation across the industry during the period, the business performed well and has good momentum going into the second half.’

Shares were down 3.4% at 215.00 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.

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