Grafton Group, which owns the Woodie's and Chadwicks brands here, has reported a 5% fall in revenues between the start of January and April 21.
In a trading update ahead of its AGM in Dublin today, Grafton said group revenue fell to £669.2m from £704.3m the same time last year.
Grafton said that softer trading in the seasonally less important early months of the year was influenced by prevailing macroeconomic conditions in its individual markets and "exceptionally" wet weather in Ireland and the UK which impacted demand.
The company reported an 8% fall in average, daily like-for-like revenue in its UK business, but revenues were up slightly - rising by 0.6% - in Ireland.
It noted that its Woodie's DIY, Home and Garden business in Ireland had a positive start to the year with revenue growth driven by an increase in both transaction numbers and in average basket size.
Grafton said its Chadwicks business saw materials price deflation of about 6% but continued to benefit from an improving trend in volumes and a favourable macroeconomic backdrop.
It noted that the provision of housing remains a public policy priority with new Taoiseach Simon Harris recently increasing the build target for new homes over the next five years to 250,000 which compares to 32,700 new home completions in 2023.
Meanwhile, it said that demand conditions in the UK RMI market remained weak with materials price deflation of about 3.5% and adverse weather conditions also contributing to the decline in revenue.
It said that lower revenue from smaller customers and timber factories in the Netherlands was largely offset by revenue growth generated by large construction projects, while the slowdown in the Finnish economy and construction sector continued to impact volumes in IKH.
Grafton also said today that its fourth share buyback programme, launched in August 2023, was extended to the end of May this year and the maximum aggregate consideration increased from £50m to £100m.
"Trading in the period continued to be challenging in most of our markets and revenue trends were also impacted by price deflation and exceptionally wet weather in Ireland and the UK," Eric Born, the chief executive of Grafton Group, said.
"Looking ahead, whilst we are not expecting a sustained recovery in our markets in the short term, we do expect profitability to be slightly more weighted than usual to the second half," he said.
"We remain focused on being the providers of choice for our customers, investing in our brands and maintaining tight control of costs. We are confident in the underlying demand fundamentals and the medium-term outlook for our markets and on the opportunities provided by our cash generative business and a healthy balance sheet," the CEO added.
