Irish building materials firm Kingspan Group has celebrated an increase in sales for the first nine months of 2019.

The company released a Trading Update for the first three quarters of the year, with sales at €3.43 billion, up 8% on the same period last year. Despite this sales growth slowed to 2% in the third quarter.

Over the nine months, the company and enjoyed increased sales in Insulated Panels, Insulation Boards, Light & Air, Water and Energy, and Data & Flooring.

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2019 has also seen the Group acquire Group Bacacier SAS, an integrated metal profiling and insulated panel distributor with an extensive network across France with annual revenues of approximately €190m.

Net debt at the end of September 2019 was €622.5m. Net debt at year end is forecast to be in the region of €700m reflecting the acquisition of Group Bacacier.

Overall, Kingspan's end markets are fragile reflecting an uncertain global macro backdrop. In particular, the firm is mindful of the deterioration in sentiment in some markets most notably in the UK. This is likely to influence sales activity in the first quarter of 2020 at least.

The company is expecting to finish 2019 with a full year trading profit of c. €490m or growth of 10% on 2018.

(CM/MH)