Forterra makes bricks, concrete blocks and precast concrete floors for UK construction, mostly new-build housing. A rate-driven slump in 2023 cut UK brick demand by about 30% just as it finished a £140m factory-building programme. A 2025 recovery pulled net debt down to £56m, but 2026 has turned weaker again, with first-half revenue down 13.5%.
Bricks, blocks and floors for Britain's builders
Forterra runs two segments. Bricks and Blocks is the larger, with eight brick factories in seven locations and capacity of about 600 million bricks a year. It is the only maker of the Fletton brick, sold as London Brick, and a leading maker of Thermalite aircrete blocks. Bespoke Products sells Bison precast concrete flooring.
Each brick factory sits next to its own clay quarry. The company says its reserves of over 90 million tonnes last about 50 years on average and that a new quarry can take up to 10 years to permit, which keeps new entrants out. Customers are housebuilders, merchants, distributors and contractors. 11 Mar 2026
Boom, then a 30% collapse in brick demand
In 2022 Forterra earned adjusted EBITDA (operating profit before depreciation) of £89m, after raising prices on some products by almost 50% in the year. Then rising mortgage rates hit housebuilding. UK brick consumption fell from 2.5 billion in 2022 to 1.7 billion in 2023. Forterra's own despatches fell by more, because it sells heavily to volume housebuilders, the group most exposed to higher rates.
In October 2023 the company warned that third-quarter demand had deteriorated sharply and that EBITDA would miss guidance. For 2023, revenue fell 24% to £346m and EBITDA to £58m. Net debt before leases rose from £5.9m to £93.2m, after inventory build, capital spending and restructuring costs. The dividend fell from 14.7p to 4.4p. 26 Mar 2024 11 Oct 2023 24 Jan 2024
Cut output to fit demand, finish the new factories
Management mothballed the Howley Park and Claughton brick factories and cut shifts. It later closed Howley Park for good, saying it was near the end of its life. It targeted fixed-cost savings above £20m a year, at a one-off cash cost of £9m. In 2024 brick output still ran below 60% of capacity, which left high fixed costs spread over few bricks.
At the same time the company finished a roughly £140m programme: £95m for the new Desford brick factory, £30m to rebuild Wilnecote for commercial and specification bricks, and £12m for brick slips at Accrington. The programme added 15% to brick capacity. In 2024 revenue was flat at £344m and EBITDA slipped to £52m, but operating cash flow rebounded to £60m and net debt fell to £84.9m. The July 2024 guidance of about £50m EBITDA was met.
Management's own words from March 2024 set the bet it was making. 26 Mar 2024 12 Mar 2025 30 Jul 2024 23 Jan 2025 11 Nov 2024
“Importantly, however, these temporary reductions will not impact our ability to respond quickly when our markets recover.” 26 Mar 2024
2025: volumes return and debt falls
Demand recovered modestly in 2025, and Forterra outgrew the market. Industry brick despatches rose 6%; company revenue rose 12% to £386m and adjusted EBITDA 18.5% to £61.6m. Both Desford kilns ran together for the first time, and Omnia brick slips launched. Net debt fell to £55.7m, about 1.0 times EBITDA. The shares peaked at 201.5p in July 2025, when the company raised its full-year expectations.
In July 2025 it also announced proposals to exit its non-core Formpave and Bison Bespoke businesses. The reports provided do not say how these ended. In March 2026 it set a new capital policy: a dividend of about half of adjusted earnings, then surplus cash returned through a £20m buyback. The total dividend for 2025 doubled to 6.2p. 11 Mar 2026 29 Jul 2025 16 Mar 2026
Pricing held; volume is what moves profit
Prices stayed broadly stable through the slump, so profit swung with volume. At 60% of capacity, fixed costs hurt in 2024. When volumes returned in 2025, EBITDA rose faster than revenue. The 2023 hit was worse than the market's because of the exposure to mainstream housebuilders.
The company has stated one large ambition: EBITDA of about £120m in the medium term, assuming a return to 2022 market conditions. It first said this in November 2024. Against that, 2025 EBITDA was about £62m. Guidance has mostly been met: the 2024 target was beaten slightly and the 2025 expectation was raised. For 2026, the March outlook was EBITDA slightly ahead of 2025. By July it was a result 'in line with consensus', and the company has not published what that figure is. 11 Nov 2024 12 Mar 2025 11 Mar 2026 28 Jul 2026 26 Mar 2024
A new finance chief and a pay vote with dissent
Neil Ash is chief executive; Nigel Lingwood became chair in April 2025, succeeding Justin Atkinson. Ben Guyatt, chief financial officer after 20 years and present at the 2016 listing, leaves on 31 October 2026. Lisa Oxnard, from Genuit Group, replaces him.
At the May 2026 AGM the pay policy won only 61.44% of votes, and the board said it would talk to shareholders who opposed it. Directors have bought shares: Lingwood at about £1.80 in October 2025, then he and Ash at about £1.33 in June 2026, and several non-executives in September 2026. Cobas Asset Management raised its stake from 3.8% to 13.1% between October 2025 and June 2026. Perpetual reported 10.0% in June 2026, and Vulcan Value cut its holding from 9.6% to 5.0%. 11 Jun 2026 28 Jul 2026 4 Feb 2025 19 May 2026 23 Oct 2025 15 Jun 2026 22 Sep 2026
2026: the recovery has reversed
The year opened wet and weak. UK brick despatches were 8% below the prior year in January and 11% lower in the first quarter. Forterra cut London Brick and aircrete output in early 2026, and four-month revenue fell 11%. First-half revenue fell 13.5% to £168.8m and EBITDA to £27.0m from £29.9m. The margin still edged up to 16.0%. Net debt before leases was £74.5m, up from £69.4m a year earlier. The interim dividend was cut to 1.7p from 1.9p.
The buyback began in March 2026 with a first £10m tranche. The shares fell from 190p at the end of February to about 135p in June. The latest close was 145.2p on 9 October 2026. 11 Mar 2026 19 May 2026 28 Jul 2026 16 Mar 2026
Flat second half, with a backlog to recover
Management expects second-half demand to match the first half and the year to land in line with consensus. It plans to recover rescheduled production in the second half if the market allows, and brick price surcharges start on 1 June 2026. About 80% of 2026 gas is fixed. The second buyback tranche is due to end by 31 December 2026.
Capital spending should fall. The company plans about £2m for a brick slip cutting plant at Measham and up to £15m a year of maintenance spending, while it keeps leverage under 1.5 times. Looking beyond 2026, management points to a housing shortage and government pressure to build more. It has given no date for a sustained recovery. 28 Jul 2026 19 May 2026 16 Mar 2026 11 Mar 2026
“We anticipate demand in H2 will be similar to that seen in H1, supporting the Board's expectations that the Group will deliver a full year result in line with consensus” 28 Jul 2026
Written by AI from Forterra's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources