Victorian Plumbing has put out a solid set of half-year numbers. The headline is simple enough – revenue grew 10.5% to £168.8 million in H1 2026 – but the more interesting bit is what sat underneath that growth. Orders hit a record 609,000, tiles and flooring surged, cash generation stayed strong, and the core Victorian Plumbing business looks to be in good nick.
The catch is that reported profit progression was a bit messier than the sales line suggests. The Group is investing into MFI, its newer homewares business, and it is now carrying a full six months of costs tied to the new distribution centre lease. So this is one of those updates where the top line looks punchy, the core operation looks healthy, but some of the headline profit measures need a second look.
Victorian Plumbing H1 2026 results: the key numbers retail investors need
| Metric | H1 2026 | H1 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £168.8 million | £152.7 million | 10.5% |
| Gross profit | £83.9 million | £76.6 million | 9.5% |
| Adjusted EBITDA | £15.4 million | £15.2 million | 1.3% |
| Operating profit | £9.8 million | £6.8 million | 44.1% |
| Adjusted PBT | £9.4 million | £11.8 million | (20.3%) |
| Free cash flow | £12.9 million | £12.9 million | No change |
| Net cash | £21.2 million | £10.9 million | 94.5% |
| Interim dividend | 0.74p | 0.70p | 5.7% |
Victorian Plumbing revenue growth was real, with record orders and market share gains
The best part of this update is that the sales growth looks genuine rather than inflated by pricing. Retail revenue excluding MFI rose 9.2% to £166.7 million, while order volumes jumped 12% to 609,000. That tells you customers are still turning up and buying, even in a subdued market.
Average order value fell 3% to £274, which might look disappointing at first glance. But management says that was driven by more tiles and flooring only orders, and that fits with the rest of the release. Items per basket rose 6% to 3.5, so customers are still filling the basket, just with a slightly different mix.
That category mix shift matters. Tiles and flooring revenue rose 84% to £14.0 million and now makes up 8% of revenue, up from 5%. For me, that is a genuinely encouraging sign because it shows Victorian Plumbing is broadening what it sells without losing momentum in the core bathroom business.
Trade revenue also grew 8% to £39.0 million. It slipped slightly as a percentage of revenue to 23%, but the company still sees a big opportunity here given the wider market is estimated to be closer to a 50:50 split between trade and consumer.
Victorian Plumbing profit margins: why operating profit jumped but adjusted PBT fell
This is where investors need to separate the core business from the reported Group numbers. Adjusted EBITDA – earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and before certain non-cash or one-off items – edged up only 1.3% to £15.4 million. That looks underwhelming against 10.5% revenue growth.
But excluding MFI, adjusted EBITDA actually rose 11.8% to £17.0 million. In other words, the established Victorian Plumbing business improved nicely, while MFI dragged on Group profit as expected during its build-out phase.
MFI made revenue of £0.5 million but posted adjusted EBITDA of minus £1.6 million and adjusted PBT of minus £1.8 million. That is not a shock for a start-up style launch, but it does mean shareholders are funding growth before seeing much financial return. Whether that proves smart will depend on execution over the next year or two.
Adjusted PBT, or adjusted profit before tax, fell 20.3% to £9.4 million. The company says this reflects planned investment in MFI and a full six months of expense in H1 2026 versus only three months in H1 2025 related to the 20-year lease on the new distribution centre. Finance costs rose to £2.0 million from £1.0 million, and depreciation and amortisation climbed to £4.6 million from £2.7 million.
Operating profit jumped 44.1% to £9.8 million, but that flatters things a bit because last year included exceptional costs linked to warehouse transformation and Victoria Plum. So the cleaner read-across is this: the core retail engine improved, but investment and higher infrastructure costs held back bottom-line progress.
Gross margin resilience and marketing efficiency show the Victorian Plumbing model still works
Gross profit margin dipped to 49.7% from 50.2% at Group level. That is a small decline, and it came despite the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility tax from 1 April 2025 and a change in product mix. Excluding MFI, gross profit margin was maintained at 50.2%.
That is a good outcome. It suggests management is controlling costs well even while pushing harder in newer categories like tiles and flooring, where margins are slightly lower while scale is being built.
Marketing was another plus point. Total marketing spend fell to 28.0% of retail revenue from 28.8%, while brand awareness nudged up to 73% from 72%. That combination is exactly what you want from an online retailer – stronger brand, better traffic, and slightly better efficiency.
Cash flow, net cash and dividend growth make this a financially strong update
The balance sheet remains one of the more attractive parts of the story. Free cash flow held steady at £12.9 million, operating cash conversion was 84%, and net cash nearly doubled year-on-year to £21.2 million. The Group also has a £30 million revolving credit facility that remains undrawn.
That gives Victorian Plumbing room to invest without stressing the balance sheet. It also helps explain why the Board felt comfortable increasing the interim dividend by 5.7% to 0.74p per share.
The company also bought Sovereign, a transport services business, for £2.3 million net of cash acquired. The logic is sensible enough – more control over fulfilment and potential transport efficiencies over time. It is not transformational, but it looks like a practical bolt-on.
MFI progress is promising, but investors should keep expectations sensible
MFI is the swing factor in this story. The product range expanded from 600 SKUs at launch to more than 5,500 SKUs by the end of March 2026, and management says customer response has been encouraging, with an ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot score of 4.7. That is a decent early sign.
Still, this is very early days. Revenue of £0.5 million is tiny in the context of a Group doing £168.8 million in half-year sales, and it is loss-making. My view is that MFI currently looks more like a strategic option than a proven profit driver.
Victorian Plumbing outlook for FY26: steady, not flashy, but in line with expectations
Trading into H2 has started reasonably well, with mid-single digit revenue growth in the first six weeks. Management flagged weaker consumer sentiment linked to the Middle East conflict and possible inflation pressure from China imports and energy, but said there have been no material cost increases to date.
Crucially, the company still expects full-year revenue and adjusted PBT to be in line with market expectations, which it says are £329.5 million for revenue and £21.8 million for adjusted PBT. In this market, holding guidance matters.
What this Victorian Plumbing RNS means for shareholders
My take is broadly positive. The core Victorian Plumbing business appears to be taking market share, growing orders, protecting margins and converting profit into cash. Those are the traits that matter most.
The negatives are also clear. Adjusted PBT and adjusted diluted EPS both fell, MFI is dilutive to earnings right now, and the new distribution centre lease is a real cost. So this is not a clean, straight-line profit story at the moment.
Even so, I think the overall message is constructive. If you strip back the noise, the main retail engine is performing well, the balance sheet is strong, and management is investing from a position of strength rather than desperation. For retail investors, that makes this a respectable H1 update with enough momentum to keep the long-term case intact.
