Howden Joinery Group shares jumped 6.3% to 910p to top the FTSE 100 leaderboard after the kitchen supplier delivered a modest profit beat and unveiled a fresh £100 million share buyback.
Full year revenue rose 4% to £2.42 billion, slightly ahead of consensus of £2.40 billion, driven by UK like-for-like sales growth of 2.6%, above market expectations.
Adjusted operating profit increased 5% to £355 million, around 4% ahead of consensus of £341 million, with the operating margin up 10 basis points despite cost pressures.
There was a £5 million one off insurance gain in the profit, meaning the underlying beat was closer to 3%. Productivity savings of £41 million helped offset higher costs.
Chief executive Andrew Livingston said: "The business advanced on all fronts in the year. We gained market share and delivered a strong operational performance with profit growth ahead of sales.
"Alongside this, we continued to invest in our strategic initiatives which is helping our trade customers win more business while making our operations more efficient and productive."
For 2026, he said the group is assuming that the UK kitchen market will be "level year on year, following several years of decline, in what remains a competitive marketplace", while further ahead are spied "many significant longer-term growth opportunities".
Broker Stifel said: "It is reassuring to see Howden continuing to outperform a sluggish UK kitchen market."
Analysts said the company is well placed to benefit from any recovery in UK repair, maintenance and improvement spending, with scope to rebuild volumes and margins lost during the downturn.
"Howden's volumes are down around 10% compared to 2021 and its margin 360bps below ex-Covid highs. Restoring both the lost volumes and lost margin could add almost 40% to 2025E profit levels," they said.