Good morning, and welcome to the Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC investor presentation. Today, we are joined by Chief Executive Officer Ryan Mahoney. Questions are encouraged throughout this webinar and can be submitted via the Q&A box situated on the panel on the right-hand side of your screen. I will now hand over to Ryan Mahoney to begin the presentation.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the 2026 half-year results for Michelmersh. I know there are quite a few of you on the call, and I just wanted to give you a bit of a plan, running order of the presentation. I am just going to give a brief overview. I know lots of you will know us very well. Then I will try and cover the half-year results in relatively quick order, give you a bit of an outlook, and then try and allow lots of time for questions. Those of you who joined very kindly in March will know that there was quite a lot of interest in terms of questions post-presentation. We will try and ensure that that is facilitated and everyone gets a chance to ask what they want to ask of me today. About Michelmersh.
We are a premium brick and a prefabricated brick manufacturer. We operate throughout the U.K. with a further facility in Belgium. We have four principal lifetime revenue sources. Really that is reflective of the life cycle of the nature of our quarries more than anything else. We start by digging the clay out of the ground to manufacture the bricks. We put those bricks into prefabricated brick components and systems. Once we have consumed what we need or want from the land, that becomes what we call non-core and surplus, and that becomes treated as investment land. Before that element, if we need to fill the holes back in from digging out the raw materials and the clay, we operate and have licenses at our sites for landfill operations. They are all dormant because all sites are currently active or in investment land status.
We have got the capacity for 120 million bricks to be made across our manufacturing facilities. We are not quite at those levels at the moment. I will give you a bit more detail of that through the presentation. We operate six market-leading premium brands, and we have about 180 core products within our range. You can see on the right-hand side there our areas of operation. Just turning then to the page on the key elements of our strategy. Very much focused on the premium end of the market, and very much focused on innovation and sustainability within that space. That does cover, as I said, premium bricks, pavers, and special shape bricks. We look to address the full market demand, and particularly in what has been a very long trough.
Those of you who have had the opportunity to read the RNS, again, you can see that the broader market is circa 25% down from our recent highs in 2022. The manner in which we try and navigate those markets is very much focused on targeting new builds, RMI, so repairs, maintenance, and improvements, as well as then a bucket of others, which is architectural specification, schools, hospitals. Our plan very much is any one time if one of those markets is quieter, we look to try and drive opportunities in one of the other two major pillars there. We tend to sell through distribution, and again, that limits the size and scope of the commercial team. Again, that has been very much the run of how we have sold for many years.
As a result of that, we have very long-standing customer distribution relationships, which again, we see that as a really crucial part of underpinning our resilience. Again, those of you who have had the opportunity to see the RNS will see that word resilience in many places. Fundamentally, our strength is underpinned by a strong balance sheet that has allowed us to take lots of decisions over the last few years. Particularly, as I say, the markets have been undulating and unpredictable, given the state of the broader construction markets, but very focused on maintaining that balance sheet strength as we look out. I will come on to talk of that in a bit more detail. Just in terms of capital allocation framework, we really clarified this first and foremost in September 2024.
Those of you who joined calls back then will remember me talking about this and really trying to just be very clear with shareholders and stakeholders about how to think about the business and how we allocate our capital. I have talked about the strong balance sheet. It underpins all decisions, really. Fi rst and foremost, maintaining safe and efficient plants is absolutely our major priority. You will have seen if you followed results in 2024 and 2025, we have had an above normal cadence of capital investments. We put GBP 11 million into our sites over those two years. You will have seen, if you have seen today's results, that we are again back to that sort of normal level. Normal level, what we talk about is GBP 3 million - GBP 4 million, investing in enhancing our facilities. So that is really the number to think about on a steady state.
Very much focused and respecting regular returns to shareholders. You can see that while the dividend has not grown over the last two years, we have maintained the dividend. Again, I feel like there are not too many examples of that within the construction sector, where that dividend and maintaining that steady dividend yield has been an important facet of what we have been really looking to try to achieve. Again, sitting alongside dividends is the more flexible share buyback program. Again, you can just see on the box on the right in terms of the target there, very much talking about returning excess.
What we mean by excess is once we are into a net cash position again, really explaining why in a low net debt position at the moment, albeit today, you can see in the morning statement, we flagged our expectation of returning to cash next year, and that the -GBP 5 that is on the balance sheet at the 30th of June, we expect that to be at a low point in terms of where that borrowing position is. The important bit really in terms of the interim results and the overview. The key messages, if you leave with nothing this afternoon, it is really about the fact that this is a self-help period of the business and has been really for the last 12 - 18 months.
This has really been about managing, adapting, and flexing the business model and the manner in which we manufacture and operate to allow us to adjust to the market conditions. I think, by my reckoning, we probably had five false dawns since the start of 2023, where we thought that recovery was building some momentum, only to be impacted by another major macro factor, which you will all know on the call what they are. In terms of the bit of detail and why we talk about that resilience, the broader market is now down back again over 25%. Really that is reflective of just how challenging the construction sector is. We measure that number by U.K. brick dispatches, which is a government statistic. We know that is a good indicator of where we are.
Within that performance, our own revenue, our own top-line performance is down 9.5%. Just unpacking that number a little bit, this is really made up of three major items. Our own dispatches are down about 2% period- on- period. Again, if you see that delta in terms of 9% for the broader sector, that is really where that outperformance has come from and where the indications are of having grown market share against the absolute U.K. brick dispatch volumes. The second part of that is average selling prices. Again, if you have known and joined me on previous calls, you will know that we have really been trying to target stability of selling prices for our own customers. We have had a small 2% drop on average selling prices, and that is in a market which is highly competitive.
There are about half a billion, so 550 million bricks on the ground in terms of inventory volumes across all the manufacturers in the U.K., and that has really facilitated a lot of pricing competition in terms of the behaviors of the brick manufacturers as everybody tries to chase cash-generating opportunities, and to gain market share in a difficult market. The third element, and again, we have tried to be really clear on this is about a little bit of product mix. London and the Southeast particularly, where our Freshfield Lane and Michelmersh sort of southern sites, which are both soft mud producing sites. London and the Southeast has been difficult for about two and a half to three years, and that really started with the legislation changes that came off the back of the Grenfell tragedy.
What essentially that did under Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 legislation is that pushed forward the need for complete planning applications as opposed to in the old days before Gateway 2 and 3, you would do those plans in stages. What that allowed for was more progress to happen on site. What then happened was an absolute period of about 12 - 14 months where the market was delayed in London and the Southeast. Whilst that has alleviated, that has been replaced with challenges around consumer confidence and the changes in the cost base for developers, and therefore the gross development values of the sites, particularly around London and the Southeast, have been under quite a lot of pressure, and therefore the ability to commit those sites has been more challenging.
There is planning in place for lots of sites, but unfortunately, again, that consumer confidence environment and that sentiment has been impacting progress there in terms of that specific part of the marketplace. The other element just to draw out is where the prefabricated portfolio is quite new build focused. We have been really trying to integrate those assets around our own brick sites, on our own freehold sites. Equally, we have also had to move away from lower margin manufacturing, and that has been a deliberate path, a decision we have taken across the last 6 - 12 months, really, which is to start to really try and take this portfolio into the more premium part of it. Lots of self-help that I talked about there very much has supported the margin improvement you can see on the second bullet on the left of the side there.
Again, whilst revenue has absolutely dropped, and I have just run through that, very focused on self-help in terms of the cost base, controlling those elements that are within our gift. You can see that coming through in the margin improvement. Whilst we are in a sort of a GBP 5 million borrowing position, I have talked about that being the sort of the high point for us in terms of that level of debt, and we see a stronger H2 in terms of cash collections and cash conversion, in terms of taking that back towards that cash positive position. What have we done, I suppose, with regards to that self-help? This middle column is really facilitating that. We have been very focused.
In those two years, I talked about in terms of more clear CapEx investment, what we were really trying to do there was pull forward the timing of capital improvement activities to give ourselves time for the market to improve. We have done that, and those sites have responded well off the back of that. What we have had to do now is, for particularly at Freshfield Lane, we have had to take a more deliberate and targeted response, and we have slowed down production there by 30% at that key site in the South. Again, that is really because of the unique challenges within London and the Southeast. Equally, Michelmersh, which is the other southern site below the M4 corridor, that site was closed at the start of the year. We kept our people on who did a lot of the work themselves. They know their sites the best.
We reopened that site in May, and it moved towards full capacity in August. Again, that was to facilitate for prefabricated expansion on that site, but also some facility improvements as well to drive the efficiency of the operation there. I think what we'd largely say now is those reorganization activities have largely now completed. Our expectation is in the guidance in terms of the second half, in terms of margin improvement, cash improvement, that a lot of the hard work over the last 12 - 18 months, we expect to now deliver and start to help the business get back towards a more steady state. Again, we will continue to monitor, we will continue to be agile, and we will continue to flex the business if we need to.
The last section here in terms of the discipline around capital allocation, you've seen me talk about normalized CapEx, and as I say, just repeating that GBP 3 million - GBP 4 million is the way to think about the business. That visibility of that net cash position again continues to allow us to take the right decisions through our capital allocation strategy as we see them. Clearly, again today, declare an interim dividend, which was in line with last year. We think that's a really important indicator given the state of the broader sector. I'll move over the financial highlights and cover those within the income statement. With this, I'll try and talk to moments by exception. You've seen me talk about the gross margin improvement there.
Within the central costs, again, you can see that there's been a really clear effort to make sure that we're not growing central costs ahead of anything on the top line or indeed coming through from costs of production. So very focused on ensuring that whilst top line has dropped 9.5%, you can see that through our own self-help, Adjusted EBITDA showing that pick up at 1.7% and likewise the adjusted basic shares at the bottom there. Again, you can see that really is starting to bear out now in terms of how we're focusing on that earnings progression through the income statement. Just to draw the attention there to the finance costs in a borrowing position. A lot of that was around the timing of working capital, which I will talk about on the balance sheet.
Again, very focused on getting that back because we don't want that unnecessary leakage through the income statement. So the balance sheet, generally, again, the shape of this stays pretty consistent. Amortization of the intangible fixed assets, you can see there rhythmically moving down in line with how we assess the intangible assets within the business. Tangible assets there, we fair value our assets every year. We do that in December in line with our full year-end process. So that moves with both depreciation of asset bases and indeed where we're capitalizing costs to where we've enhanced our assets. T he key there you can see is the net working capital. I just want to talk about this in a little bit of detail. The really key bit to think about within the net working capital is the inventory position.
We have invested in inventory. Really, it was a crucial thing for us to do because, number one, over the last two years, it allowed us to continue to fulfill customer orders in those sites at Floren, at Carlton, at Blockleys, at Michelmersh, where we were doing work, and it ensured uninterrupted supply to our customers. A lot of that inventory is now at Freshfield Lane. What this allows us to do is to reduce costs by 30% at that site. We still have capacity to deliver in line with normal cadence, so in line with the best of times at Freshfield Lane.
What we are able to do here with a strong balance sheet is to say, well, look, we bought ourselves here a window of time to monitor the market over a 12-24 month period to allow us to re-recruit those 30 people that we sadly lost in April. Really importantly with Freshfield Lane, we have maintained a really high core quality of people there. Rather than starting from scratch again if you had mothballed the whole site, you have got the core competencies and core skills on site there so that you are training and embedding rather than starting again, and that was a really key consideration why we approached Freshfield Lane differently to looking at the timing of capital improvement works. You can see the net debt moments on the slide there. That is at minus five. The worst of our revenue window is always December, January, and February.
Those collection months therefore then fall in January, February, and March. Q1 is always our lowest collection month, so there is a little bit of timing in there, and those of you who have had the chance to look at the full balance sheets in the RNS, you can see that in terms of the quantum of the receivables. Very little in there is doubtful. We monitor that incredibly closely, as you would expect us to. So yeah, that is a good number in terms of collections. At the bottom of the page there, you can see NAV per share, and you can obviously see there is a decent dilution there in terms of current share price. We hope that will improve over time. Cash flow, very important statement for us. You can see there again, the timing of working capital cycle there at the top of the page.
Normalizing of property, plant, and equipment there, 1.5 against the 3.8, very front-loaded. A lot of that 3.8, again, those of you who have joined before will know that we closed Carlton, which was one of our bigger sites, for three months for capital improvement works. A few other things on the page there. Proceeds of loan drawdown, you can see GBP 4 million borrowed in the first half. As I said, we expect to start paying that number back, so expect that proceeds to start to be offset against repayments as we move through towards the end of December. Dividends on the page there, again, recognizing the importance of that. That is last year's interim declaration coming through on the page. Now, market outlook. This is the bit I know lots of you are interested in.
I think what I would say in terms of the main takeaway from this slide is if you look at the gray bars that are now resembling Manhattan there on the right-hand side, you can really see the impact of the budget coming through. The budget last year, if you remember, was a longer process. A further month was added to allow the Chancellor and the Prime Minister more time to look at budgeting plans, decision making. U nfortunately, the impact there, as you can see, is by the end of November, by the time that pronouncement came out, really the impact had happened on our sector, b ut really pleasingly, since then, discipline to match deliveries against production has been much closer, and you can see that illustration there in terms of that steady state, 65 million period and period change.
But as I said earlier, that does come with the risk of highly competitive average selling prices and those people who are very focused on cash, of which we of course are one. W e are in a slightly better position with regards to our current level of borrowing and gearing. We need responsibility in the marketplace to continue b ut as I say, at the moment, it is highly competitive on the pricing front. In terms of imports, those of you who are The Sun readers or The Telegraph readers or The Times readers will get different views on imports. My view on imports has not changed. It will represent 20% of the market. It will rise and fall. Some of the headlines around British builders choosing European imports because of brick pricing, I simply don't believe that is true.
The bigger part of that story is the need for a level playing field. So a need for a level playing field in terms of the cost of carbon, and indeed, utilities. They're the bigger factor, b ut we can compete on price. This is about the need for a product. If I take you back to 2007, we had 89 brick plants in the U.K. We are now down somewhere in the region of 43 - 44, because of sort of mothballing. U.K. capacity is about 1.9 billion. That hasn't changed, by the way, since 2022. The more capacity that's been brought on by my peers has often been replacing capacity where indeed other sites have been closed permanently. So that 1.9 billion. And therefore, in that number, European brick imports have replaced some of the products that we can no longer make.
So that's the reason why European imports are there, and they're to stay. And you can see at the bottom, highly illustrative, the Belgians export 60% of their production. We know the market well. We've got a plant there. We ourselves do import into the U.K., albeit we work very hard to maintain a strong local market, which for local for us is West Germany, Holland, and Belgium itself. Y ou can see the level of exports from the U.K., very, very negligible. A very small percentage, less than 1% probably of what we do. So very different markets, and again, very important that the government understands the need for that level playing field, albeit do understand that these products are required to match what has been built before in this country. Just in terms of market structure, again, I've talked through these.
Very indicative now because it is so difficult to understand in absolute detail what my peer group are doing. You can understand hopefully the clarity that we tried to wrap around that in the RNS this morning and indeed what I am covering with you today. You can see there, full market numbers at about GBP 0.8 billion. You can see normalized numbers again, that sort of illustrative drop back on the prior period coming through. We are once again expecting full year numbers at around that GBP 1.4 billion -GBP 1.5 billion. So really staying in the foothills of a challenging market. Again, it is about us having grown our market share within those challenging markets, as I say, and we measure that by our own brick dispatch volumes versus the broader market as reported to the government.
This slide, it is a good slide, and I want to cast your mind to the medium term rather than the short term. We know the short term challenges, and I will cover those again in a little bit more detail. In terms of the medium term, there is a critical shortage of new housing. It is critical. You can see the government's efforts to try to unblock the housing market, but it is difficult to turn, it is difficult to turn quickly. As I say, the number one issue we face as a country is the confidence of us, is the confidence of yourselves on the call to make decisions around improving your home, moving home. That is the key moment that we have got to look at, and we have got to try and look at supporting improving that.
That just comes from sentiment and how we all feel in terms of making our own capital commitments against our own balance sheets and how we are feeling about our own longer-term financial security. We know inflation remains above the Bank of England target, and that has sadly meant that we have not had the three or four interest rate cuts that I think we can all do business at around that 3% level. There is good mortgage availability. The banks are being more flexible with regards to interest only, and I think that is an important part where people can make their own decisions for the short term, while we expect things to improve if we get steady state stability. Of course, all of this is underpinned by what we believe is U.K. population expansion.
Also, for those of you who have joined the call before, you will know that there is a rise in single dwellers as well, which is also consuming the U.K. housing stocks. The government are committed to a target of the 300,000. They keep double downing on that. Of course, we are delighted to support them. The number I always talk about is something approaching 200,000. At something approaching 200,000, we are all busy. At 220,000, that is what we did in 2022. By the way, that is the 1.95 fully consumed, with GBP 550 million coming in from overseas, for which the absolute lion's share is coming from those sort of Benelux countries. Again, anyone who has read anything about India or China or Turkey, they are a part of the market, but tiny as things stand. Again, not being complacent.
You can see the government are also talking about improving the planning process, reducing barriers, red tape, planning approvals. We don't know what this detail looks like in terms of mayoral decision making, funding for council housing as well. You can see that stated commitment to quality social housing as well, rather than just simply being a volume game. I think there's real recognition that how people live, where they live really makes a difference to the longer term. At the bottom, the one that's very important for us, as I talked about, we always target that taking a third of our portfolio as the repairs, the maintenance improvements. 180 core bricks, nearly 300, so another 120 of other.
That is designed to mirror and make sure that that gap where we close the 89 down to the sort of 44, 45 plants, we can fulfill that legacy. So when you want to build an extension in an area that no longer has a brick plant, we can assist you by a very broad range of products, and it's a big part of what we do. I think we are winning the battle in terms of brick. In terms of brick is best, you've heard me before talking about brick being best. It is the favorable material of choice for high rise cladding, remedial work as well, as well as specification projects. The point I really want to get across is it's the lowest cost for the consumer. I don't just mean that in terms of banks like it, insurers like it.
You'll like it because you don't have to spend as much on the façade. Anyone that's got a painted property will know the cost of maintaining that is a steady state of repairs and maintenance. For us, the brick, we see it as having that 200-year lifespan, but it looks better pretty much every day from the day it's laid. So it really is an important part of the market for us. Again, addressing that full space is very important. Again, trying to be true to my word of giving lots of time for questions, I just wanted to finish on the summary and outlook for us. Again, I hope it's really coming through that the markets are challenging, but our job is to be resilient within it. Our business strategy has and continues to be very tested, but I think we're responding.
Again, it's our ability to flex our operations, be dynamic, and be agile, which is very much part and core of what we're trying to achieve, alongside being so focused on the elements that are within our gift in terms of cost control to support that margin improvement. Strong order intake, look, it remains a huge indicator of the demand for our product. While the ability for us to predict the timing of that, and a lot of that is linked to our customers committing to full sites. I'll give you a quick example of what that could look like. If you've got 100 houses through planning, for example, ordinarily, you may build those out in three or four phases over a period of 12 months, and there'd be a call-off cadence from our brick sites to facilitate the build profile.
What we are seeing at the moment is some of the uncertainty within the consumer space is meaning that developers are tending to build only the show homes rather than a deeper part of that particular site. That is what we are seeing. When we talk about unpredictability of call-offs from our brick sites, really that is what we are making. I n terms of the longer term or even the medium term, we know that our product is being specified for planning. Our customers are committing to that process, and that is a really important indicator for us in terms of the longer term for our business model.
We have seen improving momentum in Belgium, which is important, and we are trying to build out the commercial team and have built out the commercial team as we look to grow our market share in some of those other peripheral markets, of which the Netherlands, we believe, is a big one in that very brick-centric space. As I said, in terms of the strength of the balance sheet, look, I believe it is strong as at June 30 on a 12-month basis as a net debt to Adjusted EBITDA, we are at 0.4 x. So on anyone's metric, that is low gearing, but I want it to be back towards that net cash position, because very much that is what we have said is our capital allocation priority.
You can see in the statement, again, repeating that fact because I think it is important it really does land, really targeting getting back to net cash for next year. We have tried to add, and we have added, the consensus trading bandwidth, which you can see on the bottom of the page there. Again, we know that you do not all have access to research materials, so we hope that has been well received in the marketplace, that when we say we are trading within that range for full year, that is the range to assess us by. Look, the caveat there at the bottom of the page clearly is you are all intelligent, you all follow the markets. There are a plethora of macroeconomic uncertainties that we are facing, and they change daily.
Whilst we are sitting there today saying that, please do recognize there is risk within that second half b ut as I say, we are doing all we can to mitigate that and control the controllables within our business. That, of course, precludes us to say that we are really looking at those stronger H2 margins and that earnings and cash generation being very key to that. Look, I think it is clear that U.K. demand is difficult to predict. There are lots of catalysts that we could talk about, and I am sure you will ask questions on. I do not have a clear moment in time when they could come to pass. Lots of these factors take time to improve. I suppose the one I would absolutely talk to as a near term is stability of policy.
That I think could be the moment that just starts to help all of us make decisions for the medium term because we understand what the government approach is going to be rather than changes through the budget or an interim budget, indeed, and that would be our ask of the government. What I would finish on before I open this up to questions is we have done an awful lot within this business to position it not for improving markets, but for current markets. I do think we are well-placed for those recovering markets. E qually, I have to say to you, I believe we are well-placed as well to continue to trade through what are difficult trading conditions. W e have got the right portfolio, I believe, and the right strategy to continue to do that as we all wait for better times.
With that, I will pause for questions, if I may.
Thank you. We have had a number of questions pre-submitted and submitted live. Just as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please type them into the Q&A box situated on the right-hand side of your screen. The first question reads, "The housing market has been pretty tough. You seem to have held up better than the overall market. Are you actually winning market share from competitors?
Yes. If you follow the other U.K. listed brick manufacturers, I think everyone has won market share. Look, I think there are many ways of cutting this. The way I simply look at it is what have we dispatched from our portfolio? Not about assets that are mothballed or anything else. What have we dispatched from our current portfolio? On that basis, we have absolutely won market share. T he most important part is we continue to hold it because, as I said earlier, the challenge we are facing is if sites are going to be mothballed because they are full, there is lots and lots of examples of aggressive pricing that is out there. Because if businesses are going to start to run for cash, they will start to drive those prices down, and that is the bit I really do watch for.
My job is to try to hold discipline of average selling pricing whilst holding onto our core customers. I think the fact I haven't tried to put prices up, I haven't tried to yo-yo with my customer base. We've tried to be really clear and concise on our message to them. You'll see the word collaboration isn't in this announcement, actually, but we remain so collaborative with our distribution partners, and I do believe that their long-term relationship, but also the manner in which we carry ourselves and conduct ourselves with them, that matters hugely to really protecting our market share. It can't be just about price because we're at the premium end.
Thank you. Do you think the government is doing enough to support U.K. brick manufacturers, particularly given the much higher energy costs here compared with Europe?
Yeah, it's a good question. I think, look, it would be really easy for me to just bash the government. This is a very longstanding challenge within utilities that is a global issue. There are elements within our own pricing construct that absolutely are related to how the government approach things. Chief amongst them, of course, is that the improvements within the networks and everything else is priced in through energy pricing as opposed to through general taxation, b ut that is swings and roundabouts. While utilities are higher, there'll be other ways and means with which the continent does challenge as well. I say again, the point that I really want to make really emphasizes, we've asked for a level playing field.
If there are elements within utilities or carbon pricing, or indeed people and other costs that are coming through with employment right changes, be fair to us with regards to how those imports are assessed. Because that's the bit that I think we would need the government to support us on, because we're there to help them with taxation. We're there to help them make sure that we can manufacture the product. So help us with a level playing field with regards to our cost base. I think, again, in terms of what they could do, I do come back to that point around stability. You could see that there are other things that we could ask for, Help to Buy, stamp duty reform, that all of those would be hugely helpful.
But as I say, I think we've got to be able to say to them, "Give us stability." If their hands are tied in other ways politically, that's the bit that could really support the industry, b ut do keep an absolute laser focus on that level playing field.
Thank you. The next question reads, there seems to be a bit of contradiction between the government wanting to build 1.5 million homes, and the U.K. brick industry cutting production. Is there a risk we end up relying heavily on imported bricks when house building eventually takes off?
Yeah, it's a good question. Look, I'll answer that with absolute fact. I think if you go back to 2007, we did not import products in any grand volume. As I said to you, because of the fact that we have gone from 89 brick sites down to 45, 46 now, today, that is an indication that we have opened the door to European imports because of the need. Because we took away the actual manufacturing capability for products that are needed to match the local vernacular in whatever town, city, or village people are looking to make improvements or indeed put down new housing. So I hope that answers what could come next. It's a long, long trough. Further sites have been closed over the last 24 months, and more may. So I think the inevitability is that imports may continue to support U.K. house building.
As I say, it is an important part of the model. You can see that on the Belgian statistics. 60% of manufactured Belgian bricks are exported from their domestic markets. The other thing just to say about a lot of those European distributors, a lot of them are family owned, so they can take different decisions than all the lion's share. About 98% of capacity in the U.K. is either domestically listed or listed via Wienerberger in Austria. So, it is important that everyone does think about that. Y es, I do believe there is a risk that imports would grow if the markets don't improve in the United Kingdom.
Thank you. The next question reads: With competitors cutting production and even mothballing capacity, does that eventually create a better pricing environment for Michelmersh? Forterra, for example, has significantly reduced production in response to weak demand.
Yeah, I think the absolute key word in that question is the word eventually. Yes, I will answer that really in the shortest of answers. Yes, eventually it would help in terms of you have essentially got more demand for a diminished pool of U.K. manufactured products. I want the whole industry to be busy, let me be clear. If we are all busy, as I say, if we are looking to get towards 200,000 houses, 180,000, 190,000, we are all busy again, I can assure you. And that keeps us all going. We stay out of each other's markets on that basis, and we actually do not overlap hugely because we have all got quite particular amounts in which we sell in the markets we sell into. I t is a key point is the word eventually.
Near term, as I said, it creates an awful lot of undulation in the average selling pricing because commercial teams become more unleashed in terms of how they approach their efforts to win market share.
Thank you. The next question reads: Your bricks tend to command a premium price. Are customers still willing to pay that premium when the market is under pressure, or are you seeing more switching to cheaper alternatives?
Yeah. In all honesty, the latter, absolutely. I am sure that happens. Please do look at the statistics that I have quoted today. The market is down 25%, period on period, down 9%. We ourselves, down 2%. That is for me an important indicator that, as I say, the depth of our customer relationships, the quality of our product and service, please do always and service, that premium. It is not just about price, it is about how we look after our customers, how we look after delivery profiles, how we help them if they have got to change their own on-site cadence in terms of deliveries. All of that is wrapped up underneath that premium product and service. That is an important part.
I would say because of the depth of the quality of our relationships, because of the depth of the quality of our portfolio, because we try to address the full market, we continue to be resilient in what are challenging market conditions.
Thank you. The next question says: There have been a number of acquisitions over the years. Are there still attractive businesses out there that you would like to buy?
Bold, I like that question. Yeah, so absolutely. Last acquisition, November 2022. I think it probably will go down as the worst moment to buy another business because that was the high point probably in terms of housing activities, particularly the new build space of which that prefabricated asset was really squarely aimed at. Of course, there are good assets out there. Absolutely, there are. Please do look at where the market is at the moment. The ability to chart an improving market, even if you take the construction activity at brick dispatch levels, it is so difficult. I will go back to one of my points I said earlier, the five false dawns, where we thought we had momentum only for it to be pulled away again. Yes, there are, of course, assets, but it is a difficult moment for us.
I am really focused on delivering against the capital allocation priorities, really trying to reward shareholders with a steady and consistent dividend. I think they are the moments for us to assess our capital allocation priorities, rather than doing something more ambitious in the acquisition space as things stand.
Thank you. The next question reads: What is the latest news/timeline on the Charnwood/Ashby Road site? Can you give any indication of potential future value in the site?
It is a good question, and look, I think there is absolutely a commercial sensitivity to that valuation. We said, and again, just retracing, there are two parcels there. The old quarry, which hasn't seen action since 2023 when brick manufacturing ceased on site, and then the actual land and buildings, which have been used for Hathern Terra Cotta clay production up until the end of last year. Also in terms of the prefabricated portfolio. So two parcels of land. One is about 4 acres, the other is about 20 acres. The point around value is I cannot give you an indication because that will compromise us commercially. What I can say is it absolutely is under review. We very much wouldn't have talked about it so openly if we didn't see that as part of the non-core part of the portfolio.
Going back to one of those four pillars I talked about, we will look to convert that into cash in due course. Indicative timings, I cannot do any better than we expect something in the short to medium term.
Thank you. Do you expect revenue growth to return in the second half, or is the market still too uncertain?
It's a good question. I think hopefully I'll go back to what I said earlier. We aren't expecting change. It is important to know that that sort of December, January, February time tends to be quiet anyway. It is also important to highlight that Q4 has been unbelievably difficult to predict for the last three years in a row. I'm focused on self-help. Again, you can see we've done a lot of activity in the first half to self-help, and we expect some of those benefits to come through in H2. You can still see the bullet there on the page. We're focused on what we can do ourselves rather than expecting catalysts from the broader market to drive those improvements, because I think they're going to take a little while to come through despite everybody's best endeavors.
Thank you. The next question is: What is the biggest risk hitting your full year expectations?
Macro factors. The elements that are sitting outside us, again, I'm sorry to keep repeating this point, it comes down to the consumer. If the consumer pivots to become more cautious again, or even more cautious, we see that very, very quickly with regards to the cadence of call-offs from our sites in terms of how many bricks are leaving our factory gates. That can be impacted by those macro factors. They could be domestically around the budget. There are rumors around elections being called, and you'll all have views on those. There are clearly also some major geopoliticals as well with regards to Ukraine, the Middle East. Of course, there's scope for any one of those two things to drive other flashpoints. It's really those elements that are outside of our control.
That is the bit I really do focus on in terms of that is the bit that makes predicting the forward demand for our portfolio so very difficult. That is the bit that really keeps me up.
Thank you. The next question reads: Gross margin increased by 340 basis points and EBITDA margin by 200 basis points despite lower revenue and reduced production. How much of that improvement came from permanent cost savings and efficiency gains, and how much from product mix, inventory movements, or temporary factors?
Yeah. It is a very good question. Look, I think some of it was from the year before. I am afraid I have sadly had to thank an awful lot of people for their contribution to my business over the last 12, 18 months. Some of that is permanent. Again, I think before I go on, let me just emphasize the point again. We can get that capacity back, in terms of that is prefabrication, and that is brick manufacturing volumes as well. It is not a permanent exit at all by any stretch of the imagination. Freshfield Lane is absolutely, I was going to say permanent, but it is a near-term delivery of costs because Freshfield Lane as a site is about the cadence of manufacture. It is not like a long tunnel kiln, which you are either switching on or switching off.
It is people, it is an handmade process, so you can speed up or slow down that site. Again, those 30 people that left us are absolute costs. Likewise, the reductions in raw materials, reduction in utilities at those sites. Likewise, the sites that we have closed, which are leased whole sites costs at Charnwood as well. Also, as I said at the very start, that other tranche that is in dispatches ASP and product mix was us exiting low margin business within the prefabrication space. Again, I see a lot of this as being quite permanent, b ut, I say again, the revenue performance that we have done within these markets, we still need that to stay there. Because whilst we can do as much as we can to pull levers on costs, we still need to make sure we are holding that revenue performance.
We are very pleased with progress and we have got more to do, and we expect to get more done in the second half.
Thank you. Are you seeing any real signs of confidence returning from house builders?
Not really, I am afraid. I think that is just me in terms of conversations with them. That is the narrative we get through our commercial market intelligence. That is also what you can read within their own market reports. You can see there is an awful lot of caution around land banks. There is an awful lot of caution around cash protection. There are brighter pockets. I think Persimmon have been more upbeat, in terms of a more clear commitment to improving the volumes within their own spaces. So it is not all doom and gloom at all, b ut as I say, I think within the London and the Southeast particularly, which given they are key markets for us, they are key markets for lots of people, but key markets for us. There is a lot of caution. We watch those markets very closely.
As I say, the key is we know there is appetite for our portfolio, and that is the bit that really gives me heart, that we are not losing our customers. Their caution is impacting them. A gain, they are very prepared to take us through planning because they want the product that we are selling, and that is an important indicator that underpins the resilience of that model. O f course, we watch all of them very closely. I think they are cautious in terms of the consumer sentiment, the same way as we are.
Thank you. The next question says, when you backfill a spent pit, generally do you plan to sell on as a land bank or hold to maturity and development potential?
Sorry, Josh. Do you mind just saying that first bit of the question again? I am sorry, I did not quite hear that first bit.
When you backfill a spent pit, generally do you plan to sell on as land bank or hold to maturity and development potential?
Yeah, that is a good question. Generally, the former. We would generally lean into the expertise of others in terms of how they develop those sites. You can see, I am sure lots of you really monitor very closely the timings of developments. The gestation period on them can be enormous. Often what we have tried to do in the past is make sure that there is planning consent or surplus sites have been adopted within local planning plans for the councils. That is a good point for us to realize value. It tends to historically lean towards the former, but I would say never say never. The whole point of being flexible and agile is you are always asking yourself the question. We would also always ask ourselves the question, what is the right approach for that individual site? They are very different.
All the councils, all the sites for where we are operating have got different opportunities based on the environment in which we are surrounded. Some are within industrial spaces, some are within housing developments already, because lots of towns and villages have their own brick sites, some are in the villages. It is not a hard and fast rule. Generally speaking, if you want a clear answer, it is the former that we have tended to do in the past.
Thank you. We are now moving on to our final question for today. If you have any further questions, please email the team who will respond to any questions that were not covered this afternoon. The final question reads, you have talked about being more efficient and improving margins. When do we, as shareholders, actually start seeing the benefit of that in earnings and cash generation?
Yeah, it is a good question. I hope as shareholders, you can see that what we try to do is return value, as and when we can, and consistently. The dividend has grown up until 2024 and has stayed steady in 2025 and 2026. You can see with the interim declaration of GBP 1.6 , that is in line with last year, but better than any other interim declaration we have had, aside from the singular GBP 2.5 in 2019, which was a slight COVID interrupted year. That is a long history since we paid our first dividend. I would certainly answer that by saying I believe we have been consistent returning value to shareholders, and indeed have operated two buyback programs within that period as well, in 2022, and then in 2024.
My job as I see it, is in what is now the worst trough for U.K. construction activity by the sheer length of time that this has been going on, is to continue to flex and adapt the business such that you, as shareholders, do continue to see those returns. I really hope it is clear in terms of the capital allocation strategy so that you can make any decisions to buy further shares, which we hope is the one that you move towards. Constantly trimming or raising dividends, in my view, is something that we have really tried to avoid. Again, I hope you can see from our track record that to date we have been successful with that. I hope you continue to support us.
I hope you can continue to see that we're doing all we can within that self-help space to drive and improve those margins back towards that 20% EBITDA margin. As a result, we'll continue to try to deliver against capital allocation strategy. I think we've done an awful lot to put ourselves in as good a position as we can, to either trade through these markets as they continue, or such that we're well positioned for when that market recovers. Look, I thank you for those of you who are shareholders for your support. Please stay with us because I can assure you we're doing all we can to navigate what are extremely difficult markets.
Thank you. We currently have no further questions, so I'll hand back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Thank you. Look, I think hopefully I've covered all, and there were some really good questions in there. This is always a brilliant call for that. Thank you for your interest. I know you all really closely monitor the market as well as following ourselves very carefully. Thank you. As I say, we continue to do all we can. I'm sorry I can't point to those moments and the time that those catalysts will start to come through to improve our markets. I n the meantime, I can assure you we'll continue to do all we can to try to resiliently trade through. As I said, for those of you who are already shareholders on the call, thank you so much for your support, and we hope to see you again in March for a further update.
Thank you to the management team for joining us today. That concludes the Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC investor presentation. Please take a moment to complete a short survey following this event. The recording of this presentation will be made available on Engage Investor. I hope you enjoyed today's webinar.