Masterplast made a strong start to the year

Masterplast Nyrt. achieved a revenue of 18.66 million euros in the first quarter, which means a 4 percent growth compared with one year ago. The continuing favourable branch environment had a positive effect on the company’s performance, though the unusually cold March delayed construction investments. Despite this, the company achieved good results on the chief markets in the January-March period. For instance, on the Hungarian market which generates 37 percent of the income, there was a 7 percent expansion of turnover compared with the base year.

“In Hungary the increase in demand was also perceptible on the retail market, the number of housing construction permits continued to rise, and furthermore statistics point to branch growth and brisker economic processes than last year. The temporary negative influence of the unfavourable weather was counterbalanced by the European Union grants for improving energy efficiency and high demand for the firm’s products due to apartment block constructions resulting from the state home creation scheme” – said Dávid Tibor, president of Masterplast Nyrt.

In terms of income, on the export market which is of second greatest weight, there was a 3 percent increase in the first quarter when reckoned over the year. Of the individual national markets, Poland performed outstandingly, where Masterplast was able to increase its sales by 78 percent.

Primarily due to the outstanding performance achieved on the Hungarian market, Masterplast’s trade margin grew, and thanks to the further expanding output of Subotica fibreglass mesh production and Kál fibreglass mesh and foam foil manufacturing, production of the firm’s own manufactured products became more successful and efficient. Thanks to the higher turnover, the rising trade margin and the improving manufacturing efficiency, the company’s operating result (EBIT) was 266 thousand euros in the first quarter, which means close to 50 percent expansion when reckoned over the year. Masterplast closed the January-March period with an after-tax result of 54 thousand euros, which is double that of one year earlier.

“We are very pleased that despite the effect of the extreme March weather, we managed to close the seasonally weakest period with success. Taking into consideration the favourable market mood from the second quarter, we are reckoning on an acceleration of growth, which could lead to further expansion of output and a still higher operational result” – added Dávid Tibor.

At the end of March 2018, the Masterplast Group employed 900 persons, in contrast to the headcount of 863 one year earlier. The number of workers in the Subotica fibreglass mesh plant grew from 274 last March to 351 in the March of this year.

The goal of Masterplast Nyrt. is to become the region’s leading manufacturing and distributor company on the market for products related to insulation solutions by 2020. To this purpose, the company updated its strategy last year and is paying particular attention to increasing production efficiency and to more effective operation. Last autumn the company announced an additional investment of close to 6.7 million euros in its Subotica plant, by means of which the company will also offer products to segments which are not closely linked with the construction industry. The new, industrial division may also play an important role in helping the company meet the targets set for 2020 of a 110 million euro income and an EBITDA margin above 7.5 percent.