Revenue is down at Forterra, the Northampton-based manufacturer of clay and concrete building products, amidst “challenging” trading conditions.
Providing a trading update for the four-month period ended 30 April 2026, the company noted that revenue decreased by 11% relative to the prior year.
It comes as domestic industry brick despatches for the first quarter showed an 11% reduction relative to the prior year.
Forterra noted that “low to mid single-digit brick price increases, sufficient to recover the levels of cost inflation envisaged at the time, were successfully implemented in the first quarter.”
The ongoing crisis in the Middle East, however, has created further challenges for the business, with additional cost inflation driven by significant increases in the cost of diesel, transport services and natural gas.
Forterra said the impact of the increased cost of gas is, however, mitigated by its forward purchasing strategy, with around 80% of the firm’s requirements for the remainder of the year secured at pre-crisis pricing.
The business added: “Whilst our forward purchasing of gas insulated us from the higher prices in March, we have rescheduled some production from April until the second half of the year in order to manage our gas cost. Assuming market conditions allow, we plan to recover this production in the second half of the year, which will increase the second half weighting of our full-year result.”
In response to additional cost inflation, Forterra has implemented surcharges on its concrete products and announced brick pricing surcharges to take effect from 1 June 2026.
The firm added in its trading update: “Whilst events in the Middle East and the associated macro-economic and supply chain risks do not appear to have materially impacted demand for our products to date, we remain mindful as to the potential impact of higher borrowing costs on demand for housing and therefore our products.
“With the elevated uncertainty we presently face, forecasting how the second half of the year will evolve has become more challenging, leading to a greater range of potential full year outcomes than previously anticipated.”
