In a preliminary estimate of its financial performance in 2013, Finnish piping system specialist Uponor (Vantaa; www.uponor.com) has forecast that operating profit in the year will be between EUR 48.5m and EUR 50.5m on sales of EUR 906m. In 2012, the company reported an operating profit of EUR 52.4m on sales of EUR 749m.

On 1 July 2013, Uponor cancelled its guidance for the year as it started up Uponor Infra, its joint venture merger with KWH Group (Vasaa; www.kwhpipe.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 04.07.2013, on that day.

The company said that sales and profit development during the final quarter of the year was heavily impacted by the weak performance in its French subsidiary. This downturn resulted from the cancellation of a local French product approval relating to a central product system, which led to a drop in sales. Additionally, the company accepted product returns from the distribution chain, incurring costs. However, the returned products are fully approved for sale in Uponor’s key markets and bear no risk of being non-marketable. The company said that it believes that some of its competitors have faced similar problems in France.

Since December 2013, the company has had approval for a substituting product and system for the French market, so the issue is not expected to materially impact Uponor’s 2014 performance. Uponor said that it will continue its business in France and aims to capture any lost market share.

Subdued demand in the Building Solutions – Europe segment in November and December had further affected the company’s performance, it added. Lower than expected integration costs at the newly-established Uponor Infra positively affected the JV’s performance – non-recurring costs of the integration were EUR 4.8m, EUR 1.3m lower than expected, and will affect operating profit during the third and fourth quarter of 2013.

Uponor will publish its 2013 financial statement on 14 February 2014.