Northumberland wood manufacturer Egger has seen orders bounce back after tough trading in the pandemic, driving sales over £300m.
The Hexham business forms part of an international group of companies based in Austria, with operations across Europe, making wood panels for kitchens, bedrooms and offices, wall panelling in hotels, counters and shelving in shops and flooring for the housebuilding industry.
Now the firm has published accounts for the year ended April 30 2021, in which turnover rose 7% to £301.1m on the back of busy times across its markets.
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Operating profit also more than doubled, from £15.12m to £34.5m, and overall profit for the year rocketed from £8.6m to £25.9m.
Directors at the company, which had 727 employees in the financial year, said trading was badly affected at the start of the pandemic with slow sales.
Since the summer of 2020, however, they said the market has recovered strongly and order levels have been high ever since.
In the accounts report, the directors sound a note of caution over rising prices, driven by demands for wood within the biomass industry which is forcing up pricing levels and also adding availability pressures.
However, they said the price and availability risks are mitigated by Egger UK’s long term contracts with key suppliers, as well as its strategy through subsidiaries Egger Forestry Limited and Timberpak Limited.
Following publication of the accounts, Bernd Steinlechner, financial director for Western Europe Division, said the firm had done a "great job" in the face of driver shortages and cost constraints.
Despite the challenges Egger also invested a multimillion-pound sum across its UK operations.
He said: “The last two years have certainly not been without difficulties. The Covid-19 pandemic completely changed how we live and work, and we thank all of our employees for their continued support, understanding and flexibility during this time. The whole team has done a great job to ensure that we all work in a safe and responsible way, whilst also ensuring continuity of operations.”
“Over the past year we have also had to contend with challenges in transport due to driver shortages as well as unprecedented raw material cost increases and shortages. Energy costs continue to increase to very high levels, which as part of an Energy Intensive Industry can have a huge impact on our cost base.”
“We continued to make investments of over £8m in our overall UK operations in the year ended 30 April 2021, and we are continuing with our strategy to invest significant amounts in our operations.
“Despite ongoing uncertainties such as Covid-19, the Brexit impact, and general economic volatility, we are well positioned due to our ongoing investment and re-investment in production technologies, the focus on our employees, our mix of customers, our market-leading product range and our commitment to high service levels.”
Andrew Tait, commercial director for Western Europe Division, added: “After a very difficult end to the financial year 2019-20 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the market began to pick up at a very fast pace from June 2020 as end consumers invested in their homes.
“As a major supplier into the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom sectors, as well as key supplier into the construction industry, we have benefited from the strong market conditions and have been able to utilise the opportunity to maximise our capacities and optimise our product mix to once again achieve pre-pandemic levels.
“The market conditions continue to remain favourable and we continue with high order volumes throughout the 2021-22 financial year.”
