Ibstock is the UK's largest brick maker by volume, and it also makes concrete flooring, walling and rail products. It spent about £325m over eight years on modern factories, then watched housing demand fall and a 2025 recovery fade. In the first half of 2026 revenue was £164m, it made a pre-tax loss of £27m after a £25m write-down, and net debt was £151m.
Bricks for new homes, concrete for everything else
Ibstock Clay runs 15 brick factories fed by 15 quarries. Its Kevington arm makes masonry and prefabricated components. Clay brought in about £260m of the group's £372m revenue in 2025. Its wire-cut bricks mainly serve new-build housing. Its soft mud bricks serve repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) work and specification jobs, mostly in the South-East and London.
Ibstock Concrete has 11 sites making walling, flooring, fencing, lintels and rail and infrastructure products. It brought in about £112m in 2025 and earns lower margins than clay. Ibstock Futures, set up in 2021, covers newer products. These include ceramic façades and brick slips made at Nostell in West Yorkshire, and calcined clay, a low-carbon cement substitute made from the company's own clay reserves. 5 Aug 2026 5 Mar 2026
Housing slump: factories shut, dividend cut
Revenue fell 21% to £406m in 2023 as brick demand dropped. Management closed two clay factories, idled capacity elsewhere and targeted £20m of annual fixed-cost savings. About £5m was captured in 2023, and the 2024 results said the full £20m was delivered. Net debt rose from £46m to £101m, and the total dividend fell from 8.8p to 7.0p, then to 4.0p for 2024.
Throughout, the company kept investing in the Atlas brick factory in the West Midlands and the Nostell slips plant. Atlas adds over 100m bricks of capacity and makes the group's first Carbon Neutral certified bricks. Revenue in 2024 was £366m. The shares rose from about 150p at the end of 2023 to a peak near 200p in October 2024. 6 Mar 2024 17 Jan 2024 7 Aug 2024 5 Mar 2025
2025: capacity switched on, demand switched off
Early 2025 looked like a recovery. Brick volumes rose strongly in the first half and the market was up 17% in the first quarter. Ibstock reactivated about 20% of its clay capacity. In August 2025 it restated a committed medium-term revenue target of £600m. The 2026 reports shown do not repeat it.
Costs of restarting capacity came in higher than planned. In June 2025 guidance was set at £77m–£82m of adjusted EBITDA, below the prior year's £79m, and the shares fell from 196p in May to 146p in June. In October, weaker third-quarter demand meant second-half EBITDA was expected to match the first half. Full-year EBITDA was £71m, margin fell to 19.1%, and the dividend was cut to 3.0p. Management then cut headcount and capacity for about £5m of annual savings. 23 Apr 2025 11 Jun 2025 6 Aug 2025 10 Oct 2025 5 Mar 2026
“However, we incurred higher than expected incremental costs to reactivate this capacity and ultimately the initial momentum was not sustained and our capacity moved ahead of demand.” 5 Mar 2026
Selling assets while the market stays weak
In the fourth quarter of 2025 Ibstock sold surplus land and its Forticrete roofing sites for about £30m in total. This held year-end net debt at £120m. In November it renewed its £125m revolving credit facility for four years. In August 2026 it said it had identified land sales of up to £50m over three to five years.
The calcined clay deal has slipped. In August 2025 management expected a commercial roadmap from partner talks. In January 2026 it expected a partner and agreement by the first half of 2026, and in March it called agreement 'well advanced'. By August 2026 exclusivity with one counterparty had expired, and talks may widen to other partners. 5 Mar 2026 13 Nov 2025 20 Jan 2026 6 Aug 2025 5 Aug 2026
2026: a loss, a write-down and a lower dividend
Q1 2026 was hit by wet weather and weak demand, and the domestic brick market fell 11%. In the first half, revenue fell 15% to £164m, or 10% excluding the roofing sites sold. Adjusted EBITDA fell 28% to £26m. Management cut production and stock on purpose, which hurt margins. It also took a £25m impairment on soft mud facilities that are mothballed while demand stays weak.
Ibstock says it gained clay market share: its brick volumes fell 7% against a market down 8%. The interim dividend was cut to 0.5p from 1.5p, and leverage rose to 2.5 times. The shares fell from 132p in February to 101p after the full-year results in March 2026, and were near 75p by October. 5 Aug 2026 21 May 2026 5 Mar 2026
What worked, what did not
The cost cuts of 2023–24 arrived as promised, and Ibstock has gained clay market share in tough conditions. The factory programme is largely finished, so spending on it has stopped.
The costs came with the timing. Management switched capacity back on before demand was secure and had to cut guidance in 2025. It has twice said a recovery is coming: in March 2026 it expected modest volume growth in the second half, and by August it spoke of a long wait. Ibstock Futures was due to contribute profit from 2026, but its H1 2026 loss grew to £2.5m. 5 Mar 2025 6 Aug 2025 5 Mar 2026 5 Aug 2026
A new finance chief and a changing board
Joe Hudson is chief executive. Chief financial officer Chris McLeish left in October 2025. Simon Bedford was interim CFO until Will Wilkins, from Mpac Group, joined on 1 August 2026. Richard Akers succeeded Jonathan Nicholls as chair after the May 2025 AGM. Independent director Adepeju Adebajo leaves in September 2026, and senior independent director Louis Eperjesi leaves at the end of 2026 to join Breedon, with Nicola Bruce taking his role.
Shareholders have changed. Cobas Asset Management raised its stake from about 3% to 13%. Janus Henderson, Vulcan Value Partners and Perpetual each now report 8–10%. In 2026 Hudson sold part of the shares from vested awards, and new director Martin Payne bought 20,000 shares. 30 Apr 2025 2 Oct 2025 21 Apr 2026 25 Mar 2025 17 Jul 2026 29 Jul 2026
Smaller, leaner and more indebted
Ibstock has high operating gearing, meaning a small change in volumes moves profit a lot. At the half year, net debt was £151m, up from £120m at December, partly for seasonal reasons. Energy is 85% hedged for the first three quarters of 2026, but fuel and energy costs are rising with the Middle East conflict. A temporary fuel surcharge started in June.
Private housebuilding and RMI remain weak. Atlas is making 12 of its planned product lines. Nostell Horizon is in final commissioning, and first orders for its façade products have arrived. Management is also targeting public-funded education and social housing. 5 Aug 2026 21 May 2026
Second half better than first, but the year lower
In May 2026 the board said full-year results should be broadly in line with market expectations. In August it said they would be around the lower end of those expectations. It still expects second-half EBITDA to beat the first half. It expects net debt to fall, with leverage near 2 times at the end of 2026.
Management calls the pace and timing of any market recovery uncertain. It says it will manage capacity, stock and costs, and it plans to bring investors to Nostell in the second half. Land sales and a calcined clay partner remain open items. 5 Aug 2026 21 May 2026
“Net debt and leverage expected to reduce, with leverage towards 2 times at the end of 2026, supported by stronger cash flow generation in H2.” 5 Aug 2026
Written by AI from Ibstock's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources