Building materials group Grafton has said that its group turnover for the six months to the end of June rose by 4% to €1.05 billion.
This is mainly due to the more favourable rate of sterling over the euro, the company said in a trading update for the first half of 2012 today.
Grafton said that trading conditions in the second quarter were adversely affected by unseasonal weather with record levels of rain from April to June in the UK.
Grafton said that turnover in its Irish merchanting business was down about 9% due to a further decline in spending on housing repair and maintenance.
The company said that the Irish market continued to remain challenging.
Turnover in its Irish retailing business was also lower for the first six months of the year, dropping 12.5%. It said that adverse weather conditions in April and June contributed to greatly reduced demand for gardening products. Trading was also affected by weak consumer spending due to pressure on disposal incomes, it added.
