McBride Group – Middle East hassles caused lower profits, but recent deal could help create a good recovery, shares now 185p on just 8.5 times current year earnings
Mark Watson-Mitchell - 11.09.2026
Everyday value cleaning products so every home can be clean and hygienic
The £315m-capitalised McBride (LON:MCB), the leading European manufacturer and supplier of Private Label and Contract Manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning and hygiene market, will be announcing its 2026 Final Results next Wednesday, 16th September.
Despite almost standstill sales revenues, the group is expected to show a 15% fall-back in profits and just a 9% easing in earnings – which are the effects of the Middle East uncertainty.
However, I look for a positive indication of better trading for this year and next – certainly enough for the group’s shares, now 185p, to soon break above the 200p barrier and up to trade around the 220p/230p price range.
The Business
Employing over 3,000 people across its global business, McBride is a Manchester-based manufacturer and supplier of private label and contract manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning/hygiene markets.
Its products clean laundry, dishes and general surfaces, it also offers specialist aerosol products in Europe and personal care products in Asia Pacific.
It supplies to some 90% of the top 50 grocery retailers.
The group has sold over 1bn units, while 99% of its packaging is recyclable.
The company splits its segments into: Liquids, Unit Dosing, Powders, Aerosols, and Asia Pacific.
The Liquids segment produces a range of household cleaning products sold in a bottle or pouch, including laundry detergent, dishwasher liquids and surface cleaners.
Its Unit Dosing segment produces cleaning products in individually packaged single dose measures, including dishwasher tablets and laundry capsules.
The group’s Powders segment produces powdered cleaning products, primarily for laundry but also dishwashers.
Aerosols produce a range of household, personal care, and professional cleaning products.
The company supports its customers across the supply chain from sourcing and formulating, to production, packing and delivery.
Its brands include Surcare, Oven Pride, Hospec, Actiff and Clean n Fresh.
‘Game-Changing’ Vestacy Deal
On Friday, 28th August, McBride announced a strategic partnership securing two long-term contract manufacturing agreements with E.H. Group B.V. ("Vestacy"), the global home care company behind brands including Air Wick, Calgon, Cillit Bang and Mortein.
As part of this partnership, McBride has signed a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire two dedicated manufacturing facilities located in Spain and Portugal for a nominal consideration, with Vestacy funding £34m of new equipment and McBride investing £17m over two years for transition and capital expenditure.
The long-term contract manufacturing agreements are expected to generate £170m in annual revenues by H2 FY28.
The transaction is expected to be materially earnings accretive, with margins consistent with the group average and EPS growth in line with revenue growth, while increasing the proportion of higher-visibility contract manufacturing revenue.
Net debt is projected to increase by up to £25m at its peak.
Management Comment
CEO Chris Smith stated that:
"This transaction represents a disciplined application of our capital allocation framework, driving profitable growth that directly aligns with our strategic priorities while we continue to return capital to shareholders through our share buyback programme.
For the Board, a partnership of this scale with a global brand owner is further validation of the embedded value within the Group.
Securing these two manufacturing sites for a nominal consideration, underpinned by long-term, highly visible contract manufacturing agreements, enables us to further expand our European operational footprint while accelerating our growth targets within the key laundry category.
We are excited about the potential of this new partnership with Vestacy which highlights our ability to deliver sustainable value through our core competencies leveraging our scale, quality, innovation and integrity to reinforce our position as the manufacturing partner of choice for both retailers and brand owners in multiple markets across the household sector."
The Equity
There are some 173.6m shares in issue.
The larger holders include Teleios Capital Partners GmbH (21.98%), Zama Capital Advisors LP (12.1%), Goldman Sachs Advisors BV (5.24%), Stichting Pieter Bastiaan (5.18%), Aberforth Partners LLP (5.00%), Premier Fund Managers Ltd. (4.81%), DUMAC, Inc. (2.68%), Van Lanschot Kempen N.V (2.19%), Syd ABB A/S (1.69%), and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (1.36%).
Analyst Views
Five firms cover the group, with four calling the shares as a Buy, the other not stating an opinion.
The average Target Price is 224p, with the Lowest call at 200p and the Highest at 275p.
Yesterday Berenberg Bank initiated comment on the group with a 275p Target Price.
Analyst Andy Hanson, at Zeus Capital, has recently raised his Target Price for the group’s shares from 190p to 200p.
Considering the recent profit warning arising from Middle East uncertainty, Zeus views the latest announcement as a positive step in diversifying the customer base and improving earnings visibility.
He noted that:
“While remaining cognisant of the near-term input cost pressures faced by the Group, flagged at the latest trading update, the capital-efficient and earnings-enhancing nature of this agreement should undoubtedly be seen as a positive step in de-risking future cash flows.
We reflect this by upgrading our DCF-based target price to 200p (from 190p), capturing a full year of Vestacy cash flows from FY29E onwards, and reaffirm BUY.”
For the current year to end-June 2027, he now looks for £1,029.3m (£929.1m) of revenue to help to increase adjusted pre-tax profits of £53.2m (£47.2m), generating 21.6p (19.2p) of earnings and paying out a dividend of 3.2p (3.1p) per share.
For 2028 he sees £1,139.3m of sales, with £64.6m profits, 26.2p of earnings while maintain a 3.2p dividend per share.
Caroline Gulliver and Andy Edmond, at Equity Development have a 265p ‘Fair Price’ value on the shares.
My View
Based upon analyst estimates, McBride should soon create a good recovery, shares now 185p trade on just 8.5 times current year earnings and a mere 7 times those projected for 2028.
The 220p/230p price range looks an easy early objective.
After next Wednesday’s Final Results announcement, it is more than likely that analysts will be upgrading their estimates for the next two to three years.
(Profile 18.02.26 @ 165p set a Target Price of 200p)
(Profile 11.09.26 @ 185p set a Target Price of 225p)
Comments