Investing.com -- Genuit Group (LON:GENG) reported a 5.3% year-over-year increase in like-for-like sales for the first four months of 2025, signaling a solid start to the year.
The figures suggest improving momentum compared with the second half of 2024, when sales rose only 0.5% over the same period.
The recovery, however, comes against a weak base, with like-for-like sales down 8.6% during the first four months of 2024.
According to analysts at Jefferies, a small portion of the 5.3% sales growth is expected to have come from pricing.
The group’s Sustainable Building Solutions and Climate Management Solutions divisions showed particular strength during the period.
Genuit also pointed to signs of recovery in residential new build activity and continued improvement in the commercial sector, though repairs, maintenance and improvement (RMI) work appeared more subdued.
Despite the sales increase, Genuit left its full-year outlook for 2025 unchanged, and analysts expect little movement in consensus forecasts as a result.
The company’s 2025 adjusted EBIT is projected at approximately £96 million, while Jefferies maintains a slightly higher forecast of £97.7 million. That estimate remained unchanged following the latest trading update.
Jefferies analysts noted that the easier sales comparables in the first half of the year could gradually fade, with like-for-like sales growth projected to slow to 3.5% in the second half from 5% in the first.
Still, they highlighted that higher pricing and potential market share gains following Aliaxis’ exit from the U.K. could provide some upside to current forecasts.
Genuit acknowledged that rising labor-related costs, including a higher National Insurance contribution and an increase in the minimum wage, would pressure margins in the first half of 2025.
The company expects some offsetting benefit from pricing and productivity gains later in the year, which Jefferies has already factored into its forecast through a projected sequential improvement in second-half margins.