By Anthony O. Goriainoff

Kingspan Group PLC said Monday that first-quarter sales rose 24%, and its business outlook for the second quarter was positive with continuing strong momentum across most of its key markets.

The London-listed, Ireland-based building-and-insulation materials company said sales for the period were 1.28 billion euros ($1.53 billion). The company said that significant raw-material inflation was a key feature of the current business environment, but that the associated recovery effort, although lagging, was continuing and on track.

The company said that among its markets mainland Europe was strongly ahead, and that the Americas have had an encouraging start to the year, particularly in Latin America.

"Raw-material inflation, and indeed availability of same, is increasingly a challenge and we are doing our utmost to limit any impact on our own end markets. We have a strong backlog on hand which augurs well for the period ahead although in the current environment we are cautious about looking too far forward," Kingspan said.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2021 02:52 ET (06:52 GMT)

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