Grafton Group reported turnover for the four months to the end of April of EUR677m, up EUR1m on the same period last year. Trading for the period was influenced by poor weather and continued weakness in the merchant’s markets.
Average daily like-for-like sterling revenue in the UK merchanting business, which contributed 74 percent of turnover, was marginally higher for the four months. Poor weather affected sales in March but these recovered during April.
The Irish merchanting business increased like-for-like revenue by 1 percent, marking the first period since the first half of 2007 to record turnover growth.
Grafton has said that while turnover growth in the first two weeks of May has seen some improvement, it remains cautious about the near-term outlook for its businesses and is looking to a continuing reliance on internal initiatives to improve profitability.
