As we come to the end of the year, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on just how far we’ve come. 2025 has been the year of integration for us all.
We spent 2024 planning and preparing for the integration journey, and as we entered this year we became one UK and Ireland organisation.
Bringing two historic organisations together was never going to be easy and we had our share of teething problems as we learnt more deeply about the legacy organisations but we have adapted and addressed challenges as quickly as we could.
Today, we are operating as a single, unified business. We can take an order that includes products from three different brands and deliver it together, on one pallet, as one group.
That’s something we should be proud of – our ability to do that speaks to the incredible effort and hard work everyone has put in over the past 12 months.
We have a very strong foundation to build on and grow our brands in the future.
Looking back across the year, there is so much to be proud of, in particular seeing our Synergy projects come to life.
We’ve had a number of projects where Villeroy & Boch and Ideal Standard have appeared on the same specification, and we have even had a handful of projects featuring all three brands.
We have many legacy showroom customers from both brands now featuring both Villeroy & Boch and ideal Standard.
When the acquisition was first announced, we talked about how naturally the three UK brands fitted together and it’s so exciting to see that playing out in the market, with real customers and on real projects.
Another highlight has been the engagement we have had with UK customers such as the Wolseley leadership team and with the architecture and design community in Mettlach.
Our global headquarters is a very special location, bursting with history and heritage and offering the opportunity to also see our Mettlach manufacturing site.
The museum, the archives, the showroom and the offer of accommodation in Saareck Castle create an experience that is incredibly powerful when it comes to making an impression on our growth partners.
One of those visitors this year was CP Hart, a major retailer in the bathroom design and specification space that both brands have desired to work with for many years and now we are working closely together to start a meaningful relationship.
I am excited to share more about this as we journey into 2026!
We’ve achieved all of this against an economic backdrop in the UK and Ireland that has been extremely difficult.
Construction has been uncertain, political instability has created hesitancy and customers were waiting to see what the November budget would bring to drive confidence in our market.
We also know some of our biggest competitors have faced their own challenges this year but our strategy was always to take share in 2025 and we will continue with that plan in 2026.
Looking to our own performance in this year, we hope to deliver a broadly flat performance.
Whilst I would much prefer to be sharing a solid growth performance, we have held turnover whilst integrating and with the aforementioned market challenges so we should be proud of the effort that that has taken.
As we look ahead, our focus has to shift from integration to acceleration. We have our foundations to build on and our customers are very receptive to our three brands being together under one roof.
We have the scale, the expertise and the portfolio to take share and to grow. The next step is to accelerate and make it happen.
The market is likely to remain tough in the early part of 2026 but we need to create our own momentum and we will. We’ve proven this year that we can adapt, make decisions quickly and deliver results in difficult conditions.
Thank you for everything you’ve done this year. Your work, your resilience and your commitment have made an enormous difference.
I hope you all get some time to rest over the Christmas period, to spend time with family and friends and to come back ready for an important year ahead.
Wishing you and your families a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Lisa