Builders merchanting and DIY group Grafton has said its group revenue for the first four months rose by 6.5% to £698m on the same period last year.
In an interim management statement ahead of its AGM, Grafton said the continuing recovery in the UK and Irish economies supported growth across its businesses.
In its trading update, the company said the strong momentum in revenue growth in its Irish merchanting business, which started in the second quarter of last year, continued into this year.
It noted that residential repair, maintenance and improvement was the main driver behind this growth as the recovery in the wider Irish economy started to speed up.
"The gradual recovery in house building, from the exceptionally low levels of recent years, was concentrated in the Greater Dublin Area and provincial cities," the company said.
"There were early indications that a recovery is starting to take hold in the civil and commercial segments of the market," it added.
Like for like revenue continued to increase at a moderate pace in its UK merchanting business, the company added. Its Irish, UK and Belgian merchanting business now makes up 91% of group revenues.
Grafton said its retailing business, which makes up 6% of group revenues, benefited from modest revenue growth as the recovery in the wider economy started to slowly move into the retail sector and DIY market after a prolonged period of flat or declining revenue.
"The group is well positioned to benefit from growth in its markets and from ongoing development activity that will support further progress towards the delivery of its medium term targets outlined earlier this year, the company's chief executive Gavin Slark said.
The company is anticipating that its operating profit will be more heavily weighted towards the second half of the year due to the benefit of both ongoing development and margin improvement initiatives.
