McBride Group – up 680%, Interims next Tuesday, shares 165p, on 7.6 x earnings, TP 235p

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 18.02.2026

The shares of the McBride Group (LON:MCB) put on 6p yesterday, to close nearly 4% higher at 165p, the highest level since 2018 – so what is going on?

Could it be anticipation of a good set of Interim Results to be announced next Tuesday morning, 24^th February?

I featured this group at the end of February 2023, when its shares were just 24p, so the subsequent increase in price, up 680% in those three years, has been more than pleasing.

And I still consider them to be very cheaply rated!

The £291m-capitalised group is the leading European manufacturer and supplier of Private Label and Contract Manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning and hygiene markets.

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.

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.

Interim Trading Update

On Tuesday 20^th January, the group provided a Trading Update for the six months to end-December 2025.

It anticipates that its full-year adjusted operating profit will be in line with analysts' expectations of £64.0m similar to the prior two financial years, despite a slight first-half dip compared to the previous year.

The company expects a stronger second half driven by confirmed business wins, supporting profit growth in 2027 and 2028.

In the first half its revenue increased by 0.8% with a 0.4% volume growth, maintaining strong private label demand.

Net debt stood at £120.6m at period end, with net debt cover at approximately 1.4x EBITDA.

Overall demand for private label products remains strong with Private Label Household share of the top five markets remaining at recent highs.

Profitability levels have been maintained through a combination of product engineering, operational improvements and overhead cost control.

In late November last year, the business exercised the option to extend by one-year to November 2029 its €175m multi-currency, sustainability-linked, revolving credit facility agreement.

That facility ensures that the group continues to have significant levels of liquidity headroom.

Board Confidence

The group believes that the current market capitalisation fundamentally undervalues the business to a significant degree and therefore viewed its share price as presenting a compelling opportunity to create substantial shareholder value through capital returns.

It initiated a £20m share buyback programme utilising the maximum allowance of approximately 10% of outstanding ordinary shares.

The business intends to pursue buybacks as one of the key priority uses of available capital until its market capitalisation more appropriately reflects the fundamental value of the business.

In addition, the company has loaned the Employee Benefit Trust £7.5m in October and November 2025 in aggregate to purchase shares to meet certain future employee share award obligations, thereby offsetting potential future dilution.

The Equity

There are some 174m shares in issue.

The larger holders include Teleios Capital Partners (21.55%), Zama Capital Advisors (11.87%), Goldman Sachs Advisors (5.13%), Stichting Pieter Bastiaan (5.08%), Premier Fund Managers (4.72%), DUMAC Inc (2.63%), Syd ABB (1.66%), Van Lanschot Kempen (1.49%), Dimensional Fund Advisors (1.31%) and BlackRock Investment Management (1.29%).

Broker Views

Three broking groups closely follow the business, each rating the shares as a Buy.

The consensus average Target Price is 199p, while the Lowest is 180p and the Highest 235p.

At Zeus Capital, its analyst Charlie Cullen estimates that the year to end-June 2026 will report some £929.1m (£926.5m) in revenues, with adjusted pre-tax profits of £53.3m (£54.9m), earnings of 21.6p (21.1p) and paying a dividend of 3.1p (3.0p) per share.

He looks for 2027 to show £947.7m sales, £55.4m profits, 22.5p earnings and a 3.2p dividend.

Analysts Caroline Gulliver and Andy Edmond, at Equity Development, have a ‘fair valuation’ of 235p on the shares.

They look for the 2026 trading period to show £928.7m revenues, £56.6m profits, 25.0p earnings and a dividend of 3.6p per share.

For 2027 they see £941.7m sales, £58.2m profits, 25.7p earnings and a 3.7p dividend.

Going into 2028 the analyst’s pencil in £961.3m turnover, £59.8m profits, earnings of 26.4p and a 3.8p dividend per share.

My View

Despite the 680% rise over the last three years, ahead of next week’s Interims this group shares still look cheap to me, trading at 165p on a mere 7.6 times its current year price-to-earnings ratio.

I believe that the accompanying statement will be positive and display confidence that it will be showing a stronger second-half year.

An easy target of 200p would still undervalue this Europe-leading business.

(Profile 18.02.26 @ 165p set a Target Price of 200p)