Denmark: Rockwool’s profit has risen by 56% year-on-year to Euro28m for the first quarter of 2016 from Euro18m for the same period in 2015. Its net sales fell slightly to Euro494m from Euro499m. it reported sales of Euro368m in its insulation business, a slight fall from Euro375m in the first quarter of 2015. The company stated that sales growth had continued from 2015 into early 2016 in most markets with the exception of Russia where exchange rate variations contributed to a slight decline in net sales in the quarter.
“We continue to improve the overall health of the business. I am especially pleased to see that our business transformation programme is contributing so significantly to the strong Q1 result. The growth in North America continues and in Europe we see good developments in both Northern and Southern Europe, a trend we would like to see spreading to the core markets of Germany and France. Russia is the main challenge at the moment, but even with this important market at a low level we made solid progress in group profitability,” said company chief executive officer Jens Birgersson.