Grafton posts rise in first-half revenue
Builders' merchant Grafton Group posted a rise in first-half revenue on Tuesday but sounded a cautious note on the short-term prospects for the UK business.
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In the period from 1 January to the end of June, group revenue was up 9% to £1.39bn, or 6.2% at constant currency. Meanwhile, like-for-like group revenue rose by 5.7%. LFL revenue in the UK grew 4.5%, while Ireland saw its revenues up 12.2% and sales in Belgium and the Netherlands rose by 1.5% and 4.3% respectively.
The company's Selco business in the UK saw double-digit revenue growth, driven mainly by the rollout of new branches. Six branches were opened during the half year and Selco now trades from 54 branches.
Chief executive officer Gavin Slark said: "We are pleased with the group's first half trading performance which was better than we anticipated and provides a good platform for the full year. Looking ahead, we expect to continue to benefit from both our strong market positions and exposure to multiple geographies and for the positive trends in the Irish and Netherlands businesses to continue in the second half.
"Whilst we remain optimistic on the medium term outlook for the UK, we are cautious about the shorter term impact of current uncertainty and pressure on real incomes which may temper growth in spending on housing repair, maintenance and improvement."