Balta grows after action on pricing and costs
Major UK importer Balta Carpets grew sales by 4.9% in Q3 this year but warns that further action may be required on rising energy costs and ongoing raw materials issues.
Announcing its Q3 results, the Belgium-based conglomerate saw strong growth in rugs and some recovery in the commercial sector but residential sales were down 3.6%, compared to a buoyant post-lockdown performance this time last year.
Profits the the third quarter this year, while slightly below Q3 2020 levels, were 21.4% higher than in Q3 2019.
Cyrille Ragoucy, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Balta said,
“Trading in the third quarter of 2021 added to the strong record of improvement over the last 15 months. Our YTD 2021 Adjusted EBITDA ended well above the same periods in 2019 and 2020. Revenue in the Commercial division, which has been slower to recover from the pandemic, grew compared to Q3 2020, mainly due to a recovery in the US construction sector.
"In Q3, the strong increase in raw material and transportation costs first seen by the industry in Q2 2021 started to significantly impact Balta’s Cost of Goods Sold. While the start of the quarter still saw some benefit from the lower cost of raw materials purchased earlier in the year, this effect is coming to an end. As well as focussing on growing our business and continuously improving efficiency through our NEXT program, Balta has implemented price increases across all divisions to pass on the inflationary pressure.
"The significant energy cost increases in Europe started to impact us as from September and will require further action,” he added.
