Grafton Group, the owner of Woodie's, Chadwicks and MacBlair, has reported pre-tax profits of £180.1m for the year to the end of December, up 0.7% on 2024.
Grafton said its revenues rose by 10% to £2.52 billion as it benefitted from an acquisition in Spain.
It said its full year adjusted operating profit was ahead of expectations, increasing by 7.1% to £190.2m, mostly on the back of the first full year contribution of Salvador Escoda in Spain,
The company has announced a full year dividend of 37.75 pence, up 2% on the previous year.
Grafton said that while positive trading conditions are expected to continue in the Republic of Ireland and Spain, its other markets are anticipated to remain challenging in 2026.
During the year, Grafton said it had adopted a new reporting structure which better reflects its strategy. The group is now organised into four geographical areas - Island of Ireland, Great Britain, Northern Europe and Iberia. Previously Grafton was organised on the basis of five distribution segments, one retailing segment and one manufacturing segment.
Its Island of Ireland division includes Chadwicks, Woodie's, MacBlair and MFP (which was divested last May). Its Great Britain division includes Selco, Leyland SDM, TG Lynes, CPI EuroMix and StairBox, while its Northern Europe division comprises Isero and Polvo in the Netherlands and IKH in Finland and its Iberia unit comprises Salvador Escoda in Spain.
Grafton said its businesses on the island of Ireland contributed 42% of group revenue, down from 44.5% in 2024, Great Britain 30.4% (2024: 33.6%), Northern Europe 18.6% (2024: 20.6%) and Iberia 8.5% (2024: 1.3%).
Revenue at its Island of Ireland rose by 5.4% to £1.071 billion from £1.016 billion, while adjusted operating profit before property profit was up 3.2% to £111m from £107.5m.
It said that Woodie's delivered another year of strong growth, supported by a particularly strong performance in plants and garden products.
Despite modest growth in the segments of the Irish construction market served by Chadwicks, it said the business delivered a positive sales performance with particularly strong performance across the hardware, heating and plumbing categories.
Grafton added that the integration of HSS Hire Ireland, acquired last May, into Chadwicks continues to progress with the short-term focus on systems integration.
The company said that while consumer sentiment in Ireland has turned a little more cautious, the medium‑term growth outlook for the construction sector remains positive supported by consistent government policy and increased investment in housing and infrastructure under the revised €112 billion National Development Plan up to 2030.
"Solid growth is expected in the overall construction market in the ROI in 2026 supported by a step-up in investment in the public sector capital programme and a generally favourable economic environment," it said.
"In Northern Ireland, a significant uplift in volumes is not anticipated in 2026 due to the underlying weakness in the local economy," it added.
Revenues at its Great Britain division dipped by 0.2% to £765.4m from £767m while adjusted operating profit before profit rose by 6.2% to £49.2m from £46.4m.
Despite the difficult market environment in recent years, Grafton said it has continued to expand its branch network and invest in refurbishing existing locations, while broadening its product range to better support customers.
"The UK remains one of Europe's largest construction markets and a region where we have a long track record of successful operations. We remain committed to growing our presence there, pursuing new organic growth opportunities across our existing businesses alongside potential acquisition targets," it added.
Grafton said that revenues at its Northern Europe division - which includes its businesses in the Netherlands and Finland - fell by 1.1% to £469.7m from £469.3m while adjusted operating profits dropped by 17.2% to £29.6m from £35.3m.
It said that after a strong start to the year, momentum in the Netherlands eased as several major construction projects reached completion and the start of new projects was delayed.
Sales in Finland declined sharply due to persistently difficult market conditions, unfavourable weather that reduced demand for seasonal products both at the start and end of the year, and temporary operational issues that disrupted the internal supply chain, it added.
Meanwhile, revenues at its Iberia division jumped to £212.9m from £29.7m, while operating profits came in a £13.6m.
It said its Salvador Escoda business has been successfully integrated into the group during its first full year of ownership, adding that despite navigating significant change in 2025, the business delivered a stronger trading performance, outperforming the prior year on both a reported and pro forma basis.
Eric Born, Grafton's chief executive, said that delivering profitability ahead of analysts' consensus, despite inflationary pressures and challenging conditions in some of its markets, reflects the successful execution of its strategy of scaling positions across multiple geographies combined with a strong operational focus.
"We've sustained our focus on margin management, whilst also using our robust balance sheet to invest in strengthening our market positions and our customer proposition," Mr Born said.
"Grafton’s resilience in 2025 points to substantial profitability upside as demand recovers in weaker markets and as we scale our presence organically and through complementary acquisitions," he added.
Looking ahead, the CEO said the company expects continued growth in the Island of Ireland and Iberia, but added that elsewhere market conditions remain mixed.
"Though market improvement in Great Britain and Northern Europe is expected to be gradual, we remain upbeat on outlook over the medium term based on structural demand tail winds, positive operating leverage and the scalability and efficiency of our businesses as markets normalise," he added
