Leeds-based piping and ventilation systems firm Genuit Group plc — formerly called Polypipe Group — published an AGM trading update for the four months ended April 30, 2026, saying that the conflict in the Middle East has started to impact the group.
Genuit said total group revenue for the four months was £198.5m (2025: £199.3m), representing a year-on-year decrease of 0.4%, and an 8.7% decrease on a like-for-like basis.
“The group’s markets were affected by persistent wet weather in January and February, resulting in subdued construction site activity,” said Genuit.
“The conflict in the Middle East started to impact the group in March, including inflation in polymer and freight costs. This became more pronounced in April.
“The group has acted swiftly and implemented double digit price increases in May on affected polymer-based product lines and increased freight charges across the board. Whilst there has been some seasonal uptick, volumes in March and April have remained lower than the prior year, with market sentiment adversely affected by the prevailing macroeconomic environment.
“Against this backdrop, the group has focused on what it can control. We have made strong progress on integrating the two recent acquisitions, accelerated simplification initiatives to reduce cost whilst maintaining capacity and we continue to focus on developing structural growth opportunities.”
In its 2026 Guidance and Outlook, Genuit said: “The UK housing and RMI markets continue to be characterised by lower confidence and softer volumes resulting from the external environment, although other end markets including water infrastructure and building ventilation are more resilient.
“Without resolution of the Middle East conflict, current levels of cost inflation are likely to persist. Whilst double digit price increases have been implemented swiftly, the short lag between cost inflation and these actions, combined with lost contribution at lower volumes, means that underlying operating profit in the first half is anticipated to be in the region of the prior year on a reported basis (H1 2025: £44.6m).
“The Group is accelerating planned simplification initiatives that will target between £4m and £5m of annualised cost savings. Whilst the impact of these actions in the 2026 financial year will be moderate, this is expected to deliver c.60-70 bps of margin improvement for 2027. In addition, the Genuit Business System continues to generate additional productivity benefits and efficiencies that will help to combat the effects of inflation. The combination of actions being taken are expected to improve underlying operating margin sequentially in the second half of 2026.
“Assuming a timely resolution of the Middle East conflict and stabilisation of the macroeconomic environment, the Board anticipates Group underlying operating profit to be towards the lower end of current analyst estimates for full year 2026 1.
“Whilst the outlook remains uncertain, the Group’s strategy continues to focus on outperformance by targeting markets with structural and regulatory drivers, including those benefiting from the Warm Homes Plan, Future Homes Standard and AMP8 water cycle. The benefits of these structural drivers for Genuit are now becoming clearer and the Group anticipates they will meaningfully benefit growth in 2027 and 2028.”
Genuit CEO Joe Vorih said: “The Group has navigated a challenging trading environment in the first four months of the year with speed rigour and discipline, focusing on what we can control. The conflict in the Middle East and prevailing UK macroeconomic environment has resulted in lower market volumes and significant cost inflation, particularly in polymers.
“As we have demonstrated in prior inflationary markets, Genuit has responded swiftly, including working with customers to implement double digit price increases which are now in effect. We are also accelerating planned simplification initiatives to reduce cost and continue to deliver benefits from the Genuit Business System.
“Whilst we recognise the external environment remains uncertain, Genuit continues to make strong strategic progress, including successfully integrating recent acquisitions – both of which will be, as expected, accretive to Group results this year.
“Our focus on less cyclical end market segments with structural growth drivers, such as the AMP8 water investment programme and higher-performance ventilation requirements in housing and schools, is already resulting in increasing project order books.
“Further, important regulatory drivers and Government initiatives including the Warm Homes Plan and the recently confirmed Future Homes Standard improve our ability to sell higher value heating and ventilation solutions and underpin our confidence in the future.”