Restructuring costs fail to dent brick maker's profit

Restructuring costs and write-downs of more than £900,000 failed to blunt numbers at Michelmersh as the brick maker said 2018 pre-tax profit nearly doubled.

The firm was hit with £390,000 of redundancy costs at its plant in Romsey, Hampshire, while it was forced to write down a further £540,000 on plant and equipment as it pulled the plug on tile and hand-making activities.

But the firm saw pre-tax profit jump last year from £3.3m to £6.4m on turnover up 22% to a record £46m.

Chairman Martin Weaver said the UK’s upcoming departure from the EU “has not revealed significant threats to our business other than a wider economic downturn”.

Last month the firm paid €9.4 m (£8m) for Belgium clay brick manufacturing business Floren which is based near Antwerp.