Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: The shareholders of SIG have voted against the reappointment of Deloitte as auditor for the insulation materials producer. The board said that it took its shareholders’ views ‘extremely seriously’ and that it will find a new auditor as soon as practically possible. The shareholder discontent follows the discovery that the company’s profits were overstated in 2016.

In a trading statement covering the first four months of 2018, the company revealed that its sales fell slightly by 0.3%. Sales revenue fell by 4.4% year-on-year in the UK and Ireland due to poor weather in February and March. European sales rose by 3.8% due to good performance in Germany, the Benelux region and Poland.

UK: SIG has suspended a ‘number of individuals’ from its staff following the discovery of an intentional effort to overstate the company’s profit in 2016. The discovery followed allegations by a whistle-blower concerning financial irregularities whereby the group’s profit was overstated by up to Euro4.2m in 2016. The affected financial statements will be restated following an audit by Deloitte and KPMG.

According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the discrepancies relate to work carried out in 2016 under previous chief executive officer (CEO) Stuart Mitchell. He resigned in November 2016 by ‘mutual agreement’. The group’s former finance director, Doug Robertson, retired in early 2017.