Building materials and DIY firm Grafton Group said its performance for 2024 was in line with its expectations, despite a challenging market backdrop in several of its markets, including the UK and Finland.
Grafton said its Irish businesses - Chadwicks and Woodie's - continued to perform strongly with a positive outlook for continuing growth.
In a trading update, Grafton said that group revenue for the year was £2.28 billion, down 1.6% from 2023 with a weaker euro slightly reducing the level of reported results.
Since its last trading update at the end of October, Grafton said that overall conditions improved slightly in the last two months of the year compared with the same time in 2023.
Grafton said that average daily like-for-like revenue was 1% higher, in constant currency, in the period under review, supported by growth in Ireland, Finland and in its manufacturing segment.
The company said its Woodie's DIY, Home and Garden business in Ireland had a strong end to the year with average daily like-for-like revenue up 6.4% in the two month period helped by growth in both the number of transactions and average transaction values.
Its Chadwicks business in Ireland saw like-for-like revenue growth of 1.6% during the year after a strong trading performance in the last two months with average daily like-for-like revenue up 5.1%.
Grafton said that materials pricing in the period was broadly flat on the same time last year as timber and steel pricing continued to stabilise.
It added that housing completions in 2024 are now expected to be broadly in line with 2023 after a pick-up in activity in the final months of the year and the outlook for growth in construction remains positive in Ireland with an increase in housing supply being a key priority for the incoming government.
But like-for-like revenue in the UK declined by 5.9% during the year although was down by 3.1% in the last two months of 2024 as RMI demand continues to be weak.
Grafton noted that consumer confidence in the UK has weakened in recent weeks and the outlook for short term growth in the economy remains "subdued". The medium term fundamentals are still strong supported by government plans to increase new housing activity, it added.
In the Netherlands, like-for-like revenue declined by 2% during the year although was down by 4% in the last two months as early signs of recovery in the third quarter did not continue.
"Weak demand and a slowdown in project related activity contributed to lower sales in comparison to the prior year. Nevertheless, the outlook for construction in 2025 and beyond is improving with housing transactions and house prices trending strongly ahead of the prior year, constrained by a shortage of houses for sale," the company said.
Meanwhile, in Finland, IKH's average daily like-for-like revenue declined by 5.2% during the year although was 2.3% higher at the end of the year despite continued weakness in the domestic economy which is slowly emerging from recession.
Grafton said today that the integration of Salvador Escoda, the recently acquired distributor of air conditioning, ventilation, heating, water and renewable products in Spain, is on track.
Average daily like-for-like revenue in the business was down 5.5% in the last two months of the year with some disruption related to flooding in the Valencia region in November, it added.
The company said that while trading in November and December showed modest growth overall, helped by easier comparators and a strong performance in Ireland, it remains cautious in terms of the timing of a broader recovery.
"Against the backdrop of relatively insipid economic growth across many of our key markets, we are not anticipating a significant pick up in volumes this year," it said.
"While elements of product deflation affecting 2024 have stabilised, growth in product pricing is likely to be very modest against such a backdrop and likely to be lower than the general level of cost inflation being imposed on the business, particularly as regards labour costs. We continue to manage our business with a tight focus on efficiency and cost control," it added
