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Insulation giant Kingspan boosted its profits by 11% last year, it has announced in its final results.
For the year ended 31 December 2017, the company made a £377.5m trading profit, up from £340.9m in 2016.
After some of Kingpsan’s insulation was found on Grenfell Tower in July, its share price fell marginally, but it has since recovered and is now at a record high for the company, 22% higher than this time last year.
Gene Murtagh, chief executive of Kingspan, said: “2017 was another year of strong performance for Kingspan. We have continued our globalisation strategy with several significant acquisitions, including establishing a market leading presence in Latin America.
“Notwithstanding the weakening UK market, our well diversified business is well placed for the longer term.”
Kingspan’s insulation boards division, which makes the phenolic material found in small quantities on Grenfell, saw its individual profits rise by 16%, from £78.5m to £91.2m.
The company said it sold more of its ‘Kooltherm’ product because of “the increasing demand for high fire performing solutions”.
Kingspan had originally cleared the combination using a ‘desktop study’, a controversial means of justifying cladding combinations without large-scale testing.
Kingspan’s results noted: “Kingspan’s products are among the most independently fire tested insulation systems in the world, having carried out more than 1,800 external fire tests to national and international standards for compliance across global regulatory regimes.”