Van Elle Holdings plc

('Van Elle', the 'Company' or the 'Group')

Trading update

Van Elle Holdings plc, the UK's largest ground engineering contractor, announces the following trading update for the year ending 30 April 2025.

Update on current trading

In its interim results on 29 January 2025, the Company announced that market conditions had proved challenging. Despite benefitting from a strong order book, the trading environment and volumes remained supressed throughout January and February.

The Group has experienced widespread project delays, including the ongoing impact of the well-publicised delays to Building Safety Act approvals. These delays have primarily impacted trading for Rock & Alluvium, which is focused on taller residential schemes in London and the Southeast. There are over 40 projects currently in the approvals process, the majority of which are now expected to commence in FY26 and will result in a FY25 performance for Van Elle's UK operations slightly below the Board's expectations.

Van Elle Canada Inc. has experienced further delays as a strategic supply partner to the major infrastructure upgrade programme for the Toronto rail network. As a consequence of these delays, the division's trading performance will now be weaker than initially anticipated. Van Elle has developed a solid track record locally in Canada and has secured several key frameworks throughout FY24 and FY25 which have created several attractive medium-term opportunities. With the near-term uncertainty around the timing of key investment programmes, the Board is reviewing its strategic options with respect to its operations in Canada.

Consequently, as a result of the aggregate impact of the Rock & Alluvium and Canada trading performance, the Board now expects underlying profit before tax for the second half of FY25 to be similar to the first half.

Outlook

In light of the trading pressures the Group is facing, there is an acute focus on careful working capital management and aligning its cost base to drive operating efficiencies. Additionally, the Group has disposed of certain non-core assets in support of a robust balance sheet and its objective of improving ROCE.

Building on the increase in the Group's order book announced in the interim results, several large projects have recently been secured in the General Piling division, which will be delivered in early FY26. In addition, scheduled workloads across March and April represent an increase in volumes, providing encouraging momentum into the new financial year.

With an expectation that the housing market will progressively improve throughout calendar year 2025, further progress in the energy and water markets, combined with the Government's commitment to accelerate infrastructure spend and address the backlog of Building Safety Act approvals, the Board remains optimistic for the Group's prospects for FY26 whilst recognising that the pace of market recovery may be slower than previously expected.

Certain information contained in this announcement would have constituted inside information (as defined by Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014), as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) ("MAR") prior to its release as part of this announcement and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations.

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About Van Elle Holdings plc:

Van Elle Holdings is the UK's largest specialist geotechnical engineering contractor. Formed in 1984 and listed on AIM in 2016, the Company provides a wide range of ground engineering techniques and services including ground investigation, general and specialist piling, rail geotechnical engineering, modular foundations, and ground improvement and stabilisation services.

Van Elle operates through three divisions: General Piling, Specialist Piling and Rail, and Ground Engineering Services; and is focused on diverse end markets including residential and housing, infrastructure and regional construction - across which the Group has completed more than 20,000 projects over the last 35 years.