Citing the acquisition early last year of Jewson along with Saint-Gobain Building Distribution’s other UK merchant brands, STARK Group reports that it delivered record-high net sales in 2022/23 of €7billion and net sales growth of 17.7%.
Announcing its financial results for the period, adjusted EBITDA was a “strong €456million and almost on par with the previous record-setting year.” Indeed, following “several years of extraordinarily high activity levels” for the Group, it noted that 2022/23 proved to be more unpredictable with the first half of the financial year “characterised by strong growth but followed by declining markets in the second half.”
The overall 17.7% net sales growth was said to be particularly driven by the Group’s acquisition in the United Kingdom with “a firm grip on managing costs and leveraging scale benefits (securing) an EBITDA that was close to the record-setting previous year.”
The UK operation contributed net sales of €1.2bn and EBITDA of just €31m in the results for five months of the financial year. CFO Sisse Fjelsted Rasmussen said: “We acquired our UK business because we believe we can run it better. The company has underperformed for several years. We’re now changing that.
“Today, we have a business in the Nordics that is very strong. Our German-Austrian business improved commercially and financially since we acquired it in 2019. Our plan is to let our new British management team transfer our knowledge and concepts from the Nordics and Germany to the UK market. It’s a big task, but our British team has created a good momentum.”
Reflecting on the overall Group position, Sisse commented: “We are delivering a strong result in a year that has been difficult to navigate in many ways. Within the same year, we have seen both extraordinarily strong and relatively weak activity levels.
“Geopolitical turmoil, the energy crises and higher inflation and interest levels started to impact construction activity levels in the second half of our financial year, as activity failed to pick up after the winter season. Our focus is on ensuring a financially sound company that is ready to seize the growth opportunities that await when the shock effects subside.”
The company has gained market share and fueled its organic growth by 30 acquisitions. And despite challenging market conditions, the Group intends to continue investing in creating a bigger and better company.
“Over the past few years, we have invested significantly in our business. We’re investing in our existing branches and a better digital platform, we’re opening new branches and we’ve been busy with acquisitions,” continued Sisse.
“We have decided to continue with our offensive strategy after reviewing it during the year. We have a full agenda of new initiatives to take us up to 2027. Of course, the timing of these initiatives will depend on developments in the market, but we have a wide range of opportunities, and we are not running out of initiatives to make life easier for professional tradespeople and will build on our position as their favourite builders’ merchant and trusted partner.”
