Annual sales grow for brickmaking group

Revenue for the group, which includes the Cradley Special Brick factory on Corngreaves Trading Estate, Cradley Heath, was up by 23 per cent to £455.5 million.

Pre-tax profit also rose by 28.3 per cent to £72.9m.

Trading was ahead of pre-pandemic levels and only limited by capacity constraints.

Work on a £30m new brick factory at Wilnecote in Tamworth is in progress and due for completion in the final quarter of this year.

Forterra is expecting an underlying fall in demand of 20 per cent this year against 2022.

Chief executive Stephen Harrison said: "We are pleased with our strong performance in 2022 against a backdrop of severe cost inflation.

"The short-term outlook for the UK housing market remains uncertain. We saw signs of softening demand towards the end of 2022, and this continued into 2023, partly driven by customer inventory reduction. Whilst we expect demand for our products to fall in 2023 relative to 2022, we are encouraged by falling mortgage rates and recent reports of improving reservation rates.

"We wait to see how our customers' spring new house selling season develops, as this will be a key determinant of demand in the current year. Against the continuing inflationary environment we have been able to implement further selling price increases at the beginning of 2023 and secure at least 80 per cent of this year's energy requirement.

"We remain confident that Forterra is well positioned to face these uncertain times."