Ibstock H1 2026 Earnings Report

Ibstock EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 0.70
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Ibstock Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Ibstock Announcement Details

• Quarter: H1 2026
• Date: 8/5/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 4:00AM ET

Ibstock (LON:IBST) manufactures and sells clay and concrete building products and solutions to customers in the residential construction sector in the United Kingdom. The company offers bricks and masonry, which includes facing and engineering bricks, brick slips, special shaped bricks, walling stone, architectural masonry, prefabricated components, eco-habitats, and padstones and lintels, as well as façade systems; roofing products comprising roof tiles and accessories, and chimneys; and flooring and lintels, such as beam and block flooring, insulated flooring, hollowcore, and screed rails. It provides precast staircases and lift shafts; fencing and landscaping products, including fence posts, copings and cappings, gravel boards, bollards, balustrades, path edging, gully surrounds, and urban landscaping; and retaining walls, such as stepoc, slopeloc, and keystone. In addition, the company offers rail and infrastructure products, which includes rail troughs, platform copers, cable theft protection, signal bases, utility ducts, and inspection chambers; and services, including design and technical support, off-site solutions, bespoke concrete products, and engraving and cutting service. Further, it manufactures and supplies glass reinforced, precast, and prestressed concrete products. It offers its products and services under the Forticrete, Supreme, Anderton, Longley, Coltman, and Ibstock Brick brands. The company was founded in 1825 and is headquartered in Ibstock, the United Kingdom.

Ibstock H1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Negative Sentiment: Challenging first-half results: Revenue fell 15% to £164.2 million and adjusted EBITDA declined to £25.7 million from £35.5 million, driven by weaker volumes, cost inflation, and capacity-management effects. Adjusted EPS fell to £0.007, while leverage increased to 2.5x.
• Negative Sentiment: Management expects the full-year outcome to be around the lower end of current market expectations, with no meaningful near-term market recovery anticipated. Housing starts forecasts have shifted sharply from expected growth to an estimated 9% decline in 2026.
• Positive Sentiment: Ibstock expects stronger EBITDA in the second half, supported by modestly improved clay volumes, pricing and surcharge benefits, concrete recovery, growth in Ibstock Futures, and normal seasonal weighting. Net debt and leverage are expected to move toward approximately 2.0x by year-end.
• Positive Sentiment: The clay division gained domestic market share, with Ibstock volumes down around 7% versus an 8% decline in domestic brick deliveries. The company is actively reducing production and managing inventory to protect cash and avoid further stock accumulation.
• Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted medium-term growth opportunities from the Nostell façade facility, infrastructure and affordable housing, operational efficiency programs, and land assets. The expected value from land development and sales has increased to around £50 million over five years, versus the previous estimate of £25 million–£30 million.

Presentation

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Good morning. Welcome to Ibstock's 2026 half-year results presentation. I'm joined today by Simon Bedford, our interim CFO. I'd like to thank Simon for his support and leadership during his time as interim CFO. As previously announced, Will Wilkins has also joined Ibstock as CFO earlier this week and is with us here today in the front row. You'll have the opportunity to meet Will after the presentation today. Before I begin, it's also worth recognizing that we've been proudly marking 200 years of the original site of Ibstock. Few industrial businesses can trace their roots back over two centuries, and we're really proud of that. With that, let's turn to the agenda. I'll share an overview of the first half of the year and how we're navigating what remains a very challenging market.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Simon will take us through the financials in more detail, including the divisional results, cash flow, and balance sheet. I'll come back to update you on market dynamics and on the progress across our five strategic levers. I'll then summarize our outlook for the remainder of the year before we move on to Q&A. Turning first to the overview. We entered into the year with the expectation that there would be some growth in the market. However, poor weather and macroeconomic events led to more volatile conditions and subdued market demand across our key end markets. Against this backdrop, the business has delivered a solid performance in line with our expectations. Some key messages to point out. The clay business delivered a resilient performance in the period.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

U.K. domestic brick deliveries for the first five months were down around 8% year-on-year. Our comparable sales volumes were down around 7%, meaning we gained domestic clay market share in the period. While our concrete business has also been impacted by the challenging backdrop, most of our categories have outperformed the market. We've acted decisively to manage capacity, production, volumes, and inventory. We continue to align output to demand, manage inventory carefully, and maintain discipline on overhead and costs. In parallel, our teams have continued to make strong progress across the five strategic levers that underpin our medium-term value creation plan, and I'll go into more detail on that later.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Despite not anticipating any meaningful market improvement, we expect to achieve a stronger adjusted EBITDA in H2 than in H1, supported by customer order intake, an anticipated stronger performance from our concrete and Ibstock Futures businesses, and normal seasonal weighting towards the second half. With near-term conditions expected to remain challenging, the full-year outturn is anticipated to be around the lower end of current market expectations.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Finally, while the timing of recovery remains uncertain, Ibstock is well-placed to deliver growth and value creation as market conditions improve. We have a market-leading position, a more efficient asset base, major capital projects largely complete, and further optionality to generate cash from our land and clay reserves. With that overview, let me hand you over to Simon to take you through the financials.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Thanks, Joe, good morning, everybody. I will now take you through the financial performance for the first half. As Joe said, the market backdrop remained challenging, but the business has performed in line with our expectations with focused execution across pricing, cost, capacity, inventory, and cash management. Turning first to the financial summary. Group revenue for the first half was GBP 164.2 million, compared with GBP 193.4 million in the prior year.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

On a reported basis, this represents a reduction of 15%, reflecting both the market backdrop and the sale of our non-core Forticrete roofing site to the end of 2025. On a like-for-like basis, revenue is down around 10%. Adjusted EBITDA was GBP 25.7 million, compared with GBP 35.5 million last year, with a reduction driven principally by lower volumes, the fixed cost absorption impact of deliberate production and inventory management actions, and continuing cost inflation.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

This was partially offset by the benefit of around half the GBP 5 million annualized cost savings from the right sizing action taken in 2025, as well as ongoing efficiency actions. Adjusted EPS was GBP 0.007 compared with GBP 0.03 in the prior period. Net debt to EBITDA leverage was 2.5x on a banking covenant basis at the half year, compared with 1.9x in June 2025. This reflects lower earnings and a small increase in net debt. Net debt and leverage are expected to reduce in the second half as cash generation strengthens. While ROCE was disappointing in the period, we expect to return to our target ROCE of 20% as the market recovers. The board has proposed an interim dividend of GBP 0.005 per share. Moving now to cover the revenue bridge.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Group revenue reduced by GBP 29.2 million year-over-year, from GBP 193.4 million to GBP 164.2 million. The first quarter was particularly challenging given subdued demand and weather impacts. We saw improving volume trends during the second quarter. Clay revenues were 10% lower on a reported basis, with core clay revenue down 8%. That reflected lower volumes in the first half, partially offset by positive pricing. We implemented annual price increases in February and introduced a temporary surcharge in June to help mitigate additional energy and fuel-related inflation.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Concrete revenues were down 26% on a reported basis and around 11% on a like-for-like basis. The reported decline reflects the Forticrete roofing sale, while the like-for-like movement reflects continued weakness in residential and RMI markets, partially offset by improving demand for rail and infrastructure projects, a bit from a relatively low base.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Overall, the bridge reflects the reality of a difficult market, also the actions we are taking to protect value through pricing discipline. Turning now to clay. Clay delivered a resilient performance against a challenging backdrop with market share gains in the period. Total revenue was GBP 119.9 million, down GBP 13.6 million year-over-year. Core clay revenue, excluding Ibstock Futures, was GBP 118.1 million, down 8%. Volumes were lower in the first half.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

As Joe mentioned earlier, that was better than the wider domestic market in the period up to the end of May. Headline pricing remained marginally positive. The February price increase and the temporary fuel and energy surcharge introduced in June helped to offset part of the cost inflation in the period. In terms of mix, we continued to see stronger performance in new build housing and wire cut bricks, while demand for soft mud bricks remained more subdued, particularly in RMI in the Southeast and London markets.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Adjusted EBITDA for clay was GBP 23.4 million, compared with GBP 32.8 million last year, with margin reducing to 19.5%. The reduction reflected lower volumes and the temporary fixed cost absorption headwind from our deliberate management of capacity, production, and inventory levels. Those actions reduced EBITDA by approximately GBP 5 million-GBP 6 million in the period, they are the right actions to align output with demand and manage cash. Within clay, the Ibstock Futures cost base increased as Nostell ramps up with net costs of GBP 2.5 million, compared with GBP 1.5 million in the prior year. As Joe will cover later, customer engagement around Nostell is encouraging, we remain confident in the long-term opportunity.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Turning to concrete. Concrete revenue is GBP 44.3 million, down 26% on a reported basis and 11% on a like-for-like basis. The reported movement reflects the impact of the Forticrete roofing sale in Q4 2025. The market backdrop remained challenging across private residential and RMI, with flooring products particularly affected by the subdued activity. Infrastructure demand provided some support, with rail-related sales improving during the period and most other concrete categories declining less than the market.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Adjusted EBITDA was GBP 3.7 million compared with GBP 6 million last year, reflecting lower volumes and continued weakness across key end markets. EBITDA margin was 8.3% down on the prior year. During the period, we saw continued strategic investment in selected manufacturing sites. It temporarily reduced production capacity as lines were taken offline for upgrades, it positions the division to deliver operational and efficiency benefits in the second half and beyond.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

While the near-term market remains difficult, we continue to see medium-term opportunities in concrete, particularly as rail and infrastructure activity improves and as our investment in selected sites begins to deliver benefits. Moving now to cash flow. Adjusted free cash flow was an outflow of GBP 22.3 million, compared with an outflow of GBP 9.6 million last year. The principal driver was the reduction in adjusted EBITDA together with seasonal working capital movements.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Working capital was an outflow of GBP 17.2 million compared with GBP 12.4 million in the prior period. The outflow reflects the normal seasonal pattern. Inventory levels did increase modestly against the comparative period as trading volumes were softer than expected. CapEx reduced to GBP 15.2 million compared with GBP 20.9 million last year. Of this, around GBP 4 million relates to organic growth investment and GBP 11 million relates to sustaining CapEx and improvement projects.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

The important point is that our major organic growth programs are largely complete. We'd expect an acceleration in free cash flow generation as CapEx normalizes and as trading conditions improve. Turning to the balance sheet. Net debt at the 30th of June was GBP 151.3 million. This was in line with expectations and reflects the normal seasonal increase in working capital, lower earnings in the first half, and the broader trading backdrop.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Leverage was 2.5x at the half year compared with 1.9x at June 2025. We expect net debt and leverage to reduce in the second half, supported by stronger cash generation with leverage moving towards two times by the end of 2026. We continue to manage cash carefully with a clear focus on liquidity, cash generation, and maintaining financial flexibility through the cycle. For those looking for the technical guidance for 2026, this is included in the appendix section. With that, I will hand back to Joe to cover our market drivers and strategic progress.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Thanks, Simon. At the full year presentation in March, we set out five strategic levers that will help us to drive shareholder value over the medium term. These are market leadership, growth in new market sectors, product innovation, efficiencies, and strategic options. We've made some good progress across each of the five strategic levers in the first half of 2026, and this is strengthening the business today as well as building additional sources of value and diversification for the medium term. Before sharing progress across the levers, let's start with an update on the market.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

If we turn to the core markets, you can see from the chart that there's been a big swing in industry forecasts related to housing starts and completions. For us, housing starts are a key indicator. The CPA have moved from forecasting an 8% growth in 2026 in their winter forecast to a 9% decline now in their summer forecast. There's a similar picture for heavy side RMI, but a more encouraging picture for infrastructure output, which is showing low single-figure digit growth.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

The macro environment is not helping with the evolving situation in the Middle East and the U.K. changing political landscape affecting consumer confidence. House builders are experiencing build cost inflation and margin challenges, and it's difficult to see this changing meaningfully in the short term without some sort of targeted intervention from the government, such as a support for first-time buyers. The longer-term fundamentals are still positive. The U.K. continues to face a significant housing shortage. We have also an aging housing stock that requires ongoing investment and renewal.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Planning reforms and the recent announcements about building council housing are very interesting. This will all take time, and we need a short-term action to improve the pace of recovery. While we remain cautious about the near term, we continue to believe the medium-term opportunity is significant. Turning to the brick market. Clearly, there's a strong correlation with the housing and RMI markets and brick dispatches. Domestic brick deliveries for the first five months of the year were down around 8% year-on-year. As I've mentioned, Ibstock clay volumes were down around 7% for the same period. Imported products were stable at around 19% of the overall market. At the same time, there's been discipline on production and inventory.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

U.K. manufacturing inventory levels were broadly in line with December 2025, reflecting the actions we and others have taken to align output with demand rather than allowing stock to build. Looking at our own clay capacity. As stated, we have reduced our production in H1, and our plan for the year will continue to align production with market demand. Managing production and stock to recent volatile market conditions is a challenge, and we need to balance the short term with the need to supply a market that must see some recovery in the midterm.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

At this stage, we expect to see some improvement in volumes from H1 to H2. Should that not happen, we will flex our production down further. As Simon explained, this would create a margin headwind in the short term, but would be the right approach for cash discipline and longer term value.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Okay, let's turn to our first strategic lever, market leadership. With more than 200 years of trusted knowledge and expertise, the breadth of our offering, the strength of our customer relationships, our national footprint, and technical capabilities gives us a very strong brand position. As customer requirements continue to shift, our expertise in product performance, durability, technical specification, and sustainability are important differentiators.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

While many of our customers are local, increasingly larger players are looking to have national offers across a range of clay, concrete, and façade products and solutions under one unified Ibstock proposition, and we are definitely benefiting from that. During the first half, our focused commercial strategy has gained market share, along with further deepening customer relationships, improved service, and using insights more effectively to inform future growth priorities. Turning to growth in other sectors.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I mentioned in our last market update that we see significant medium-term opportunities in the areas of social and affordable housing, mid-to-high-rise buildings, along with a huge pipeline of public sector buildings and infrastructure projects. We know the government's GBP 39 billion affordable homes program provides a strong foundation, with additional discussions on council house building expected to drive further activity in the years ahead.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

While we have yet to see funding fully translate into a meaningful increase in delivery, our focus on end user relationships and housing association engagement is helping to build share and strengthen our pipeline. Several strategic relationships are tracking double-digit year-on-year growth, demonstrating the value of this more targeted approach. Although Building Safety Act issues have constrained recent activity levels, mid-to-high-rise is an important long-term opportunity, especially for façade systems.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Alongside this, the remediation market remains a sizable opportunity, with thousands of buildings still needing recladding. The third area is public sector investment. The government has committed to GBP 718 billion to infrastructure and public sector buildings over the next decade across areas including education, healthcare, and justice. This chart shows the anticipated spending splits, and we are increasingly targeting these markets.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

You can see on this next slide an example of our proposition within the education sector. The range of Ibstock products that align to the Department for Education's construction framework is very broad and is enabling earlier engagement with customers. As a result, we have seen strong engagement from notable Tier 1 contractors with millions of GBP of pipeline opportunities. As with the education example, we also see similar opportunities in health, social care, and the recently announced defense infrastructure spend. The third strategic lever is product innovation.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Innovation remains central to our growth strategy. It helps differentiate Ibstock, supports the evolving needs of our customers, and opens new routes to market. Revenue from new and more sustainable products now represents around 25% of our group revenue. Looking at the first half of 2026, within clay, Atlas is now making 12 products, including the first from our carbon neutral range. That's an important milestone, combining efficient production with enhanced product capability.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Atlas will continue to benefit from investment in hydrogen subject to the forthcoming H2 government funding round. In concrete, we brought to market the Anderton Gen 3 cable trough in June with Network Rail approval. This product is designed to significantly improve installation efficiency and support the demands of critical rail infrastructure projects. Across our façade range, the new Nostell facility is creating a strong platform for growth with good customer engagement and specification activities.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Taking a closer look at Nostell. This site will deliver some truly differentiated ceramic products and manufacturing capabilities unlike anything else in the U.K. Factory acceptance testing is now completing, and we've seen a strong customer response in both the new IBrick and FastWall ranges. Orders for the core ranges are already in the low GBP millions, with inquiries in the specification pipeline in the tens of GBP millions.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

FastWall has also already received industry recognition as Housebuilder's Best New Product of the Year. We look forward to hosting investors at Nostell, showcasing its capability firsthand, this is currently planned for early October. Get your tickets. Our fourth lever is in driving efficiencies, this is focused on three main areas. Firstly, our manufacturing estate. Over the last eight years, we've invested over GBP 3 million to modernize our network.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

That investment has created a safer, more automated, efficient, and more sustainable asset base, which will return significantly as our utilization levels improve. As Simon mentioned, we've completed improvement projects on our concrete flooring, walling, masonry, and lift shaft factories. We expect to see improving performance as some of these investments ramp up from H2 and into the future.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

We've also used the current market conditions to extend shutdowns in targeted clay factories and invest in high return upgrade projects. An example of this is one of our largest wire cut factories in Nottingham, where we're now seeing higher output and energy savings of between 15%-20%. We've also launched an operational excellence program, which will deliver long-term efficiencies and cost reductions across all locations. This has now started with key pilot sites and will extend more widely into 2027. The third focus extends beyond manufacturing.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

We continue to drive efficiency through process simplification, systems improvement, and digital enablement. During the first half, this included the implementation of a new customer relationship management platform, alongside a number of initiatives using AI tools designed to improve the effectiveness across the group. The last area I'll touch on is further strategic optionality centered on our land and clay reserves.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Just to provide a sense of scale, today we manage over 2,700 acres of land across the U.K., spanning our factory estate, clay quarries, where we have unrivaled clay reserves, as well as a much wider natural estate. We see increasing value being realized through several complementary routes. Firstly, the commercialization of calcined clay. Secondly, a program of land development and sales. Thirdly, land-based income streams. Looking at these three routes, starting with calcined clay.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Calcined clay is growing to become a key area for cementitious materials. Ibstock has invested to develop a major project of scale in the U.K. This is an important foundation in decarbonizing the construction industry using a lower carbon, lower cost cementitious replacement material. During the first half of the year, we've concluded further geotechnical work and investment to maximize the potential of the asset.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

We also continue to progress commercialization during the period. With an exclusivity period with one counterparty now ending, discussions may broaden to include alternative partnership opportunities as we seek to maximize long-term value from this strategic asset. We will continue to update the market on this initiative given the current live conversations taking place. Moving to look at land sales.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Further work has strengthened our view of the opportunity. We now expect our well-established land development and sales program to deliver from a previously expected GBP 25 million-GBP 30 million to around GBP 50 million over the next five years. The final area is in our land-based income streams.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Today, we already generate around GBP 2 million of annual income through inert landfill and energy. We see growing opportunities to create additional value with increased restoration and biodiversity net gain and believe this could more than double. A good example demonstrating this opportunity is our former Dalton Quarry in Lancashire, which is being transformed into a biodiversity habitat bank, generating around GBP 1 million per year. We see the potential for possibly two or three more of these, as well as the need for increased inert landfill projects.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Taken together, these opportunities demonstrate the breadth and quality of the asset base and the optionality it provides for long-term value creation. Bringing that all together, we continue to take all the necessary actions to manage the near term whilst keeping the long-term potential of the business intact. Despite not anticipating any meaningful market improvement, we expect to achieve a stronger adjusted EBITDA in H2 than H1.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

That's supported by our customer order intake and anticipated stronger performance from our concrete and Ibstock Futures businesses and the normal seasonal weighting towards the second half. With near-term conditions expected to remain challenging, the full year outturn is anticipated to be around the lower end of current market expectations. Net debt and leverage are expected to reduce towards 2x by the end of 2026, supported by stronger cash flow generation.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

We expect pricing actions to broadly offset cost inflation and will continue to actively manage production and inventory levels. Our major organic growth projects are now largely complete. That gives us a more efficient manufacturing network, a strengthened platform for growth, and greater optionality as free cash flow improves.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Over the medium term, we remain confident in the fundamentals in the business. The long-term drivers of demand remain sound. Our market position is strong, and our five strategic levers provide clear routes to value creation in addition to market recovery. With that, Simon and I'd be very happy to take your questions. As normal, for the record, I'd be grateful if you could state your name and institution before asking your question. If you're in the room, you can press the button on the microphone on your seat so people can hear. Aynsley.

[Aynsley Lammin, Analyst at Investec]

Thanks. If it's working or not. Aynsley Lammin from Investec. Just two from me, please. When we think about your guidance for the full year, are you assuming any more lack of fixed cost absorption in the second half? I think GBP 5 million-GBP 6 million in H1. Is there any in H2 expected? You mentioned you might review capacity and stock. The second question, just on pricing, I guess, just the way you think about that, you obviously had the price increase in February, and you're still sticking with your surcharges and you're confident they cover the cost increases. Or are you thinking about another proper price rise coming into summer and into H2? Thanks.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I'll take pricing, and if you want to take the cost one. We've obviously implemented a price increase in February, and given what was happening with the inflation-based geopolitical stuff, we put one in in June. We'd expect that to flow through fully for the rest of the year. At this stage, we're not planning on any other price increases. I think we've been really trying to work very closely with our customers. We ate the cost for some time to see what was going to happen. We communicated very effectively with them, and we're not looking to have any more. We'll have to wait and see what happens with the macros, but at this stage, we're not planning on any further price increases.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

On fixed costs, our aim is to balance sales demand with production demand. With our outlook moderating on our view of demand in the second half of the year, and if I just talk bricks, we'd expect probably to produce about between 45 million and 55 million less bricks in the second half of the year versus the second half of last year. We will get, like Joe is alluding to, really that fixed cost absorption headwind in the second half as well.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

You will get the full view, the full year of our cost improvement actions pulling through the second half as well.

[Aynsley Lammin, Analyst at Investec]

Okay.

[Max Hayes, Analyst at Cavendish]

Hi there, Max Hayes from Cavendish. Thanks for the presentation. Just on imports, with the shareholding steady, what's happened, again, on pricing versus domestic? Also, has there been any shift in the regional mix, or has it been fairly consistent across the U.K.? Thank you.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Imports have remained fairly flat and held their share. I think some of the importers have been quite aggressive on price. You would look at some of the pricing points and say, "Is that variable cost and freight, and are you just trying to get cash?" That some of the markets overseas are not great as well. We are going to need imports when the market comes back because the U.K. capacity is below the normalized market volumes. I think a lot of customers want to keep a bit of a foothold. Then some of the incumbents have taken more capacity off in the U.K. and are flexing their wider European capacity to bring things in. I think that's the main reason for it. They're flat. They haven't really changed in the last few years.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I think regional splits wise, the Southeast and London have been really challenged in the last few years. We're starting to see some improvement, and there's a little bit more support for making the London market move, it hasn't really meaningfully changed at this stage. It's still a fairly similar pattern.

[Ed Prest, Analyst at Berenberg]

Hi, Ed Prest from Berenberg. On the balance sheet, you talk about working towards 2x EBITDA at the year end. How dependent is that on market recovery, and how dependent is that essentially on achieving H2 EBITDA greater than H1? Do you have levers at your disposal that you can use to reduce debt without the market recovery coming through?

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Yeah, we naturally de-lever in the second half just by how our weighting works on trading. It is linked to our view of the market. It doesn't include any sort of strategic action to improve the balance sheet or net debt position. It is based on trading. We're confident in what Joe said around the indicators we've got. It's not a massive improvement in brick volumes. It's a small improvement on the first half. We see improvement in concrete business, and also we see further sales in futures, and that gives us confidence around our net debt just naturally coming down, and particularly the first half was particularly difficult. That gives us a view that we'll approach 2x leverage.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Priyal.

[Priyal Woolf, Analyst at Jefferies]

Thank you. Priyal Woolf here from Jefferies. Thanks. I think I've just got three questions. The first one is on clay. You talked about market share gains. I think there was a similar message from your other main listed peer. I just wanted to check where do you think those market share gains are coming from? Second question, just on Nostell, you talked about tens of millions of GBP revenue potentially from inquiries. How should we sort of phase that in our forecasts over the next couple of years? The last question is just in terms of the exclusivity period ending with regards to that calcined clay, all those conversations, what were the sort of main points of attrition that led to that exclusivity ending without a contract being signed? Thanks.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Good. Yeah. We've given some numbers here to show the first five months market share on clay. I can't really comment on other businesses and what they're saying. If they have taken share, there's not that many players in the market, someone's lost some share. It's pretty simple maths. I think the main thing for us is really the range of products we have and the close customer connections and the strategic nature of the relationships we have deepening over time. We supply a broad diversity of the market and that's house building, RMI, and other. I think the team's done a really good job at engaging our customers and working with them. I'm pretty confident that our brand will continue to maintain and drive share. Nostell is really interesting. This is truly a differentiated factory. It's still building up.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

The thing about specification products that link to the façade market is they've got a lead time. Typically, a specification project, a mid to high-rise building will be planned in, it'll be between 12 and 18 months. We are getting. They're already in the pipeline with architects and developers at stage one, for example. We see that, and we've had inquiries come in. The real thing for us now is to see how fast we can translate those inquiries into physical orders, which I mentioned that we've got in the low millions of GBP now, and then how quickly they get called off. There's no doubt that mid-high rise buildings with space constraints, speed, labor shortages, really need these types of products.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

We're very excited about it, we think that the versatility of our Nostell site, the innovation, we've had lots of customers visit already, they're getting very, very excited about it. This is definitely going to change the market. It's not going to cannibalize the brick market. We still are going to have lots of traditional building going on in the U.K. We think in the mid high rise space and in certain sort of government infrastructure projects, this is going to be a flyer. I think it'll ramp up over the next two years. It's not going to ramp up fully this year or next year, we definitely see it ramping up within three years it'll be to the business case that we've talked about before.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Look, when you have discussions and complicated negotiations, it's always quite complicated. I can't go into any detail because these conversations are confidential. We are still talking to a key counterparty. I think given the fact that the exclusivity period is ending and in order to maintain the maximum value creation for the longer term, I'm open to broadening those conversations to other partnership potentials. Christen?

[Christen Hjorth, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Christen Hjorth from Deutsche Bank. Managed to find the mic at the end. First question, just to sort of maybe help make it really simple for us. I think that the full year guidance, in essence, is like a mid-single digit EBITDA increase versus the first half. How should we think about, you sort of given the areas, in terms of the quantitative piece, how should we think about bridging that gap? The second one, I think, Joe, you mentioned for the full year, you expect price and cost to broadly offset. I assume that's in absolute EBITDA terms, the way we should think about it, rather than margin terms. Also, I assume was that the same for H1 as well, where price and cost broadly offset at the EBITDA line, or is there a bit of catch-up to come in H2? Thank you.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I'll take the second one. Simon can take the guidance one. We had some benefit in the first half from pricing. We only put the, I said we ate some cost with the inflationary based environment, we waited to see, is this a temporary thing? Is it going to change? We didn't want to rush to sort of just put price increases straight away. I think that was fair for our customers. We ate some cost. Now that we've put it in in June, you will see that cost largely offset inflation at its current levels for the second half.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Yeah, in terms of guidance, if we just talk H2 2026 versus H1 2026, we see, Joe just alluded to really, we see some catch-up in pricing as the difference between pricing and cost is a lot more normalized in the second half there. We see that. We see some growth in clay volumes, but only low single-digit increase in clay volumes H1 to H2. We get a little bit of benefit there. We do see improvement in the two other areas of the business, one being concrete, and the other being futures. Concrete is, we have done several investment projects in the first half of the year, which will be finalized and therefore will deliver product into the market, which the market needs.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Also, we expect some gain from rail infrastructure a bit more in the second half of the year. Also, as the inquiries around Nostell and futures increase, that will translate into sales and cover the fixed cost. What we're suffering from a bit in the first half is the fixed costs are in, but the sales are just gaining momentum, and therefore we have a net cost in the first half year. We see that moderating in the second half. You get a few of those improvements through, and therefore, that's why we believe EBITDA in the second half, slightly better than the first half, and therefore getting to that range, number we've guided on.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Stephen?

[Stephen Rawlinson, Analyst at Applied Value]

Hi. Stephen Rawlinson from Applied Value. Two from me, if I may. Firstly, just thinking about calls on cash over the next 12-18 months, would it be right to think that you're moving into a phase of maintenance-only CapEx during 2027? If so, could you give us a guide as to what the annualized level of maintenance CapEx might be? Secondly, some of the routes to market that you use, direct and indirect, seem to be under some financial strain. Could you just give us a few thoughts about your own management of credit risk in the next 12-18 months or so as we move forward? Because quite clearly, the strains start to show through more typically, sometimes on recovery than necessarily on the downturn. Just give us a clue on that, please.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

You want to take the first one on CapEx?

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

Yeah. On CapEx, we would expect our sustaining or maintenance CapEx to be around GBP 20 million going forward. I think we'd always expect a small level of improvement projects, which would be only around GBP 2 million-GBP 3 million, really, as we look to improve the fleet. You can probably classify that as growth, but that would really be it. We're not anticipating to do any major growth investments in the near future. Yeah, GBP 20 million-GBP 25 million would be our CapEx number going forward.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Yeah. At this time, we don't have any major concerns with credit. I know there was some chatter yesterday, we obviously have very good credit insurance, which covers everything. We monitor that, we're in discussions all the time. We're not seeing any big strain with our larger customers. With the smaller customers, obviously, they go through different routes to market, as you alluded to. I think some subcontractors have probably had a tough time, and that's where there's a bit more exposure. Smaller subcontractor work, and they tend to be supplied by some of the distribution networks. At this stage, we're not seeing any major credit issues in the market. Harry?

[Harry Dow, Analyst at Rothschild & Co]

Yeah. Thank you. Harry Dow from Rothschild & Co. Just two questions on inventories. Firstly, your own inventory, was actually up slightly, was what you mentioned in the presentation. Are you sort of happy with where inventories are at the moment? I know you talk about aligning production with inventories, could there be a period where we actually see production lower than sales to potentially bring that down? Secondly, just on the channel inventories, do you think there was an impact in the first half from, maybe starting maybe even in Q4 last year from some of the house builders, the merchants maybe starting to de-stock a bit on sort of signs of weakness, in which case that's maybe a one-off impact that we've seen potentially that might not occur in the second half? Thanks.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Yeah. Quite insightful, Harry. On our own inventories, we want to be really focused. We're probably higher than we would like to be. We're not in a desperate situation, we want to really manage that carefully. Obviously, we built more stock last year than we would have wanted, our yards are fuller than it would normally be. That's why this year we've taken the action to de-stock. We'll continue to manage that. If there are changes, we'll continue to flex. It's better to do that than to build more stock levels. As you look at wider inventory levels for manufactured products in the manufacturer's yards, you can see it hasn't changed that much. We obviously took some action to reduce this year, there was quite a pronounced drop in February, in the early part of the year with the weather.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

You just can't. While our plan was to actually have a working capital sort of inflow, it didn't work out like that. We'll continue to be focused on that. I think the channel, you're right, there's probably quite a bit of de-stocking as well, because there was quite a bit of stuff in the channels. I think that started to wind through in the first quarter. The second quarter of the year actually was quite, I was quite optimistic because we start to see better dispatches. I definitely think there was a bit of de-stocking going on in the first quarter. Ben?

[Ben Barrow, Analyst at RBC]

Thanks. Ben Barrow, RBC. Just on the pricing point, again, was there a difference between putting through prices for soft mud versus extruded? Has it been more difficult, perhaps in the soft mud area? Next, on land sales, that's obviously increased in your forecast. Could you give us a bit of an idea in terms of timing for that unwind? Thanks.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I think, look, prices are differentiated in the marketplace, but general price increase was fairly similar across soft mud and wire cut products in the U.K. I think some competitors may have differentiated a bit more. There's definitely a higher cost of production for soft mud products. You need to make sure you're capturing that back. I don't think there was any big changes in the general price increase around soft mud versus wire cut. Around land and timing, we've obviously found there's a few more projects that we feel are coming closer.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Again, these things, to maximize the value, you don't want to move too quickly because you need to make sure you've got planning and the right conditions to maximize the value of the land. We've said in the next five years. I think some will come before that. I don't think we've got any big chunks this year, unless something changes, which it could. I think, in the next two to three years, you'll see some interesting inflows. Clyde?

[Clyde Lewis, Analyst at Peel Hunt]

Just two left, if I may. Clyde Lewis at Peel Hunt. There was a little note about sort of carbon credit emissions spend. It'd be interesting to sort of give us an idea of the scale of that and how you think that's likely to change going forward. I suppose partly linked to that is obviously the sort of sustainability element of the business, and I suppose how much pull are you seeing from the customer base at the moment? Has that increased? Has that decreased? Obviously, the Atlas plant is going to be a lot more energy efficient, et cetera. Things like the slips, again, have a very different sort of energy profile compared to traditional bricks. It'll be interesting to see what the customers are sort of talking to you about on that front.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Do you want to take the first one? I'll take the second.

[Simon Bedford, Interim CFO at Ibstock]

On carbon emissions, so we will look at the market around carbon and look at our exposure in terms of free allowances versus the carbon emissions we've got, and we will buy carbon credits at a certain point to manage that dynamic, and that's what we did in H1. We don't see any material difference in what our carbon exposure is at the moment. Obviously, it's driven also by the market and by how we are producing as well.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

On sustainability, and I've said before, for us, sustainability is, we're a long-term business, and we want to be a sustainable business. We believe that our products actually stand the test of time and are very sustainable anyway. If you think about a brick and the carbon footprint of a brick over the life, not just 60 years, which is what's stipulated in some of the standards, but actually over, they're very, very efficient products. We use energy, we use materials, and we want to make sure we're the most sustainable in those areas.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I think the Future Homes Standard, there's still a bit of discussion around that. There's a little bit of debate around the costs associated with it, and house builders are having a real challenge. There's definitely been a lot of work done on Future Homes Standard and what materials and what sustainability requirements are needed for that. I think when you talk to architects, they're very conscious about sustainability, specifying the most sustainable products for the long term.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

They're also talking about resilience, with weather pattern changes and so on. It's more holistic than just carbon. It's a much more holistic thing, sustainability. We think that things like Atlas and the continuing drive to drive our carbon footprint down and other sustainability metrics is a real differentiator for us, and we'll keep doing it. How much price you're going to get for it in the short term, given the challenges, might be a bit debatable. We think in the long term, having the credentials of a strong, sustainable company is key. Charlie.

[Charlie Campbell, Analyst at Stifel]

Yeah. Thanks very much. Charlie Campbell at Stifel. Two, kind of related, I think. Just on the surcharges, presumably, those could come off quite quickly. I guess kind of customers would be keen to see that. What are they watching in terms of the signal for those surcharges to come off? Then second is related, really. Just wondering about your hedging policy for 2026, 2027, sorry, and at what point, which gas prices should we be looking at, and when is the critical point this year in terms of decision on hedging for 2027? Thank you.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

Yeah. The criteria we talked about with our customers when we introduced a surcharge, they asked us to look at a few things. One being, give us criteria, what your cost inputs are, and largely that was linked to the gas price. Then they said, "When things change, give us a chance to make sure that this comes off." We were very clear about that. Obviously, we ate the costs for a few months, and we need to see where those costs go. They started to come off when we thought there was going to be peace, and then they went back up again, so they're still in. The other thing to note about how quickly you can take them off, which we will do when things normalize, is you can't keep changing pricing every month.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

The customers don't like that either because they've got to change all of their back office, and it's really complicated, and they're often supplying other end users. You've got to be mindful of those things. We're working really closely with our customers, and we're talking to them regularly. In terms of the 2027 hedge, I think we're well hedged 60%, Simon. We normally like to be about 80% hedged by the time we get to budget. At this time, who knows what's going on, so we're not piling in or we're just staying cautious. We've actually got gas that we buy in energy for 2028 and 2029, like some of our competitors. We hedge forward, and we take layers of cover as we go. The near-term market, there's too much risk forecast in it, so we probably wouldn't go in at the moment.

[Charlie Campbell, Analyst at Stifel]

Thank you.

[Joe Hudson, CEO at Ibstock]

I think that might be about it. Any other questions? Good. Thank you very much for your attention today. It is a difficult backdrop. There's lots of potential exciting things that may come with some of the announcements from the government, maybe a bit of peace in the Middle East, hopefully, and we can get this market moving again. We are really well positioned for when this market come back. I think Ibstock is a really strong recovery play for the U.K. market, and we have to start building more. We will continue to navigate the short-term challenge as well. Thanks very much, and we can have a bit of a chat now if you'd like to stay around.

Participants

Executives

• Joe Hudson, CEO
• Simon Bedford, Interim CFO

Analysts

• Aynsley Lammin, Analyst at Investec
• Max Hayes, Analyst at Cavendish
• Ed Prest, Analyst at Berenberg
• Priyal Woolf, Analyst at Jefferies
• Christen Hjorth, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Stephen Rawlinson, Analyst at Applied Value
• Harry Dow, Analyst at Rothschild & Co
• Ben Barrow, Analyst at RBC
• Clyde Lewis, Analyst at Peel Hunt
• Charlie Campbell, Analyst at Stifel