Gene M. Murtagh
Chief Executive's Review
Vilanova Office
Saint-Grégoire, France
Insulated Panels
JI Grégale B300
Gene M. Murtagh
Vilanova Office
Saint-Grégoire, France
Insulated Panels
JI Grégale B300
2021 was a year marked by extraordinary volatility in supply chains and wider society. Whilst this dynamic created significant challenges to our business, and indeed our industry, underlying demand remained strong through the year, albeit somewhat weaker in quarter four.
Raw material prices which saw steep increases through much of 2021 remain at elevated levels with no evidence yet of this situation changing significantly. Our trading outlook beyond the first quarter is less visible although the prevailing mood in our end- markets, for the most part, remains one of cautious optimism.
Our innovation pipeline is most encouraging and, in particular, this year should see the market launch of PowerPanelTM and RooftricityTM, our fully integrated insulated panel and solar propositions. Our Planet Passionate agenda continues to meet all our targeted commitments and is resonating strongly with our customers worldwide. The Group remains well capitalised with approximately €1.3 billion of cash and undrawn facilities on hand.
Worldwide, there is a growing momentum amongst policy makers, consumers and other stakeholders to design and occupy buildings which consume less energy and we are evidently well positioned to harness this over the long term.
Gene M. Murtagh
Financial Highlights
Revenue
€6.5bn
+42%
(2020: €4.6bn)
Trading profit1
€754.8m
+49%
(2020: €508.2m)
Trading margin2
11.6%
+50bps
(2020: 11.1%)
Basic EPS
305.6c
+48%
(2020: 206.2c)
Dividend
45.9c
+123%
(2020: 20.6c)
Year end net debt3
€756.1m
0.88x Net debt to EBITDA4
(2020: €236.2m, 0.40x)
ROCE
19.5%
of 19.5%
(2020: 18.4%)
2021 was a year marked by extraordinary volatility in supply chains and wider society. Whilst this dynamic created significant challenges to our business, and indeed our industry, underlying demand remained strong through the year, albeit somewhat weaker in quarter four.
Our key raw materials also saw dramatic price inflation, and in all, in the region of €700m of cost increases were required to be passed through to market. The result of all of this was a record performance by the Group with revenue growing by 42% to €6.5bn, and trading profit growth of 49% to €755m. Basic EPS grew by 48%.
Activity was strong across most of our markets in both residential and industrial construction, newbuild and RMI. Order intake trends displayed in the first half eased off over the course of the second half. That said, the Insulated Panels global order backlog finished the year ahead by 28% in volume.
North and South America, France and Britain were particular stand-out positives. The Group’s growing presence in the tech, online distribution and automotive segments was instrumental in delivering this performance.
The demand for significantly more efficient materials and methods of construction is clearly gaining much needed momentum and, with the prevailing energy cost and supply threats around the world, it is likely that the drive toward conservation will be accelerated.
2021 was the second year of our ambitious ten-year programme to further boost the environmental ethos of Kingspan. This builds upon the foundations laid over our previous ten-year Net Zero Energy programme that completed successfully in 2020. The current programme encompasses stretching goals across twelve target areas.
We have recently announced revised 1.5°C aligned science-based targets bringing them in line with our Planet Passionate programme goals to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Group has now committed to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 90% by 2030 from a 2020 base year. It has also pledged to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 42% within the same timeframe. We will also implement a €70 per tonne internal carbon charge from 2023 which will galvanise full alignment across the organisation.
Over the course of the year we invested a total of €714m on acquisitions, capex and financial investments. The largest of these was Logstor Group, a European based provider of highly insulated district heating infrastructure, acquired in June 2021 for €245m. The acquisition of Romania based TeraSteel also completed in the period. Additionally, we entered the Uruguay Insulated Panel market with the acquisition of 51% of Bromyros, and enhanced our insulation channel in Australia and New Zealand with the acquisition of Thermakraft. We also became a founding investor in the ground breaking H2 Green Steel in Sweden that aims to become the world’s first zero carbon steel facility. In the second half of 2021 we acquired California based Solatube International, an exciting bolt-on to our North American Light & Air offering.
Organically, we commissioned 5 new manufacturing facilities or lines across the globe in 2021, enabling the ongoing conversion to high-performance materials.
We have plans for approximately 25 new manufacturing facilities or lines over the next four years to support the growth of our full spectrum of building envelope solutions.
Read more about our Planet Passionate strategic pillar.
PowerPanelTM(an engineered combination of QuadCoreTM insulated panel and solar PV) development completed during the period and a large scale project on an in-house roof was completed in quarter three. This is now fully operational with real time energy monitoring underway. The approval process is nearing completion which should pave the way for a full scale market launch during quarter two, in Britain and Ireland initially. We are also fine-tuning our RooftricityTM proposition, a funded solution whereby the customer outlay for a re-roof or newbuild incorporating PowerPanelTM will be minimal. Encouragingly, the soft launch project pipeline is ahead of our expectations
QuadCoreTM 2.0 is also progressing and in a coldstore application, the product reached a 120 minute fire rating, which is a dramatic leap forward and will in many cases match if not exceed the performance of synthetic mineral fibre cored products. QuadCoreTM sales value grew by 66% globally in 2021.
The team at our IKON Global Innovation Centre has also developed a low carbon insulated panel in collaboration with our suppliers. This is a prime example of how our Planet Passionate agenda is translating into market leading, sustainable products. Initial testing suggests the development panel will have c.25% less embodied carbon and contain upwards of 45% recycled content.
In addition, projects are underway to achieve an ‘A’ classification for Optim-R®, AlphaCore®, and ‘B’ classification for key Kooltherm® applications. Significant progress is also being made on entering the ‘natural’ insulation category.
Learn more about our Innovation strategic pillar:
The Group’s product integrity audit and compliance programme is extensive. Over the course of the year, 576 third party external product and system audits took place. A further 90 manufacturing sites were internally audited under the process overseen by the Audit & Compliance Committee of the Group’s Board.
ISO 37301 is the leading global standard for establishing, developing and monitoring compliance systems. We have embarked on a programme of widespread adoption of this standard across the Group and during 2021, the standard’s first year of implementation, 9 manufacturing facilities across Kingspan achieved it. During 2022, we anticipate adding another 25 locations, including the Kingscourt Insulated Panels facility which will be the first of its kind in Europe. Two of our US plants in Modesto and Deland were fully approved in 2021 making them joint first in the world.
Ahlsell
Mölndal, Sweden
Insulated Panels
Paroc DELIGN
Overview of divisions:
Activity was particularly strong throughout the year in our largest segment. Sales volumes reached a record at almost 80 million m2, order intake by volume was up by 20% and the volume backlog ended the year ahead by 28%. QuadCoreTM comprised 16% of global insulated panels order intake value and we again expect that to increase in the year ahead.
Non-residential newbuild construction has been buoyant in many of our key markets, and coupled with our growing segmental exposure to high growth end-markets combined to deliver a record year. Raw material expectations were instrumental in driving demand early in the year and as inflation topped out, so too did order intake leading to a reduction in backlog, albeit finishing the year comfortably ahead of prior year.
Raw material movements for 2022 are unclear and we will respond appropriately with pricing of our own products in the event of any significant movement.
The organic volume expansion we are experiencing necessitates a number of new greenfield facilities across the world. These expansion projects are, or will be shortly, underway in France, Romania, the US, Brazil, Vietnam and Australia.
TURNOVER
€4.229.2m
+45%(1)
2020: €2,917.4m
TRADING PROFIT
€519.8m
+62%
2020: €321.3m
TRADING MARGIN
12.3%
+130bps
2020: 11.0%
Overview of divisions:
Sales volumes in the first half of the year were particularly healthy, easing back somewhat in the latter half as the distribution network began to unwind high inventories accumulated during the period of rising prices earlier in the year. In total, volume for the year was ahead by 11% accounting to just over 70 million m2 of deliveries globally. Kooltherm® volume was modestly ahead for the full year. Industrial insulation sales, including applications like pipe, ducting and district heating/cooling were in the region of €300m for the full year, including €150m from the acquisition of Logstor Group in the second half. We believe industrial applications are a real opportunity for significant growth potential over the longer term.
To support future organic growth we are either underway with, or planning, new facilities for Optim-R® in the US, PIR board in France, industrial pipe insulation in the Benelux, PIR board in Saudi Arabia and are carrying out a viability assessment for a district heating pipe insulation plant in either Britain or Ireland. Conversion of waste heat from manufacturing and data warehousing processes will increasingly be captured and re-distributed through such infrastructure.
We are relentless in our commitment to offer an unparalleled spectrum of insulation solutions. In addition to the technologies referred to in the innovation section, early feasibility work has begun on entering the production of stone wool to support our existing and future requirement of that material.
TURNOVER
€1,182.9m
+50%¹
2020: €787.0m
TRADING PROFIT
€146.7m
+33%
2020: €110.1m
TRADING MARGIN
12.4%
-160bps
2020: 14.0%
Overview of divisions:
This relatively new segment for the Group has been evolving rapidly with global revenue for the year of €552.2m. Organic growth in 2021 amounted to a modest 1%, and the contribution of the Colt acquisition in 2020 delivered €178m revenue in 2021. The recovery of cost inflation has been slower than expected owing to the long contract lead time with customers. Recovery is now well underway and should deliver a positive margin evolution during 2022.
France and Germany were both strong performers whilst the US slipped back a little against very strong project comparatives in 2020.
In addition to bedding down the Colt acquisition, a number of bolt-ons were added during 2021 including Solatube International and Major Industries in the US. The former creates a wider global opportunity for the transmission of natural light into buildings via tubular daylighting systems, whilst Major Industries adds to our existing range of architectural wall daylighting solutions.
TURNOVER
€552.2m
+24%¹
2020: €445.5m
TRADING PROFIT
€36.0m
+15%
2020: €31.2m
TRADING MARGIN
6.5%
-50bps
2020: 7.0%
Overview of divisions:
This division delivered a good performance despite the headwinds presented by market constraints evident in Australia.
The focus of this business unit is Water related storage, heating, treatment and harvesting solutions all of which present attractive opportunities across the world.
The business has focused to date on Europe and Australia and the Americas is a real development opportunity and will therefore become a region of growing focus. Separately, a product development initiative on hydrogen storage for the transportation sector is underway and expected to be an interesting opportunity over the longer term.
TURNOVER
€261.3m
+29%¹
2020: €202.7m
TRADING PROFIT
€20.0m
+23%
2020: €16.3m
TRADING MARGIN
7.6%
-40bps
2020: 8.0%
Overview of divisions:
This business unit offers solutions to both office flooring and multiple data centre offerings, primarily designed to conserve the use of power in the storage and management of data. Whilst the office sector has been comparatively subdued, data applications are expanding apace worldwide. Our aim is to partner with the leading global providers in helping optimise energy consumption and related emissions.
TURNOVER
€271.4m
+21%¹
2020: €223.4m
TRADING PROFIT
€32.3m
+10%
2020: €29.3m
TRADING MARGIN
11.9%
-120bps
2020: 13.1%