Revenue at building materials distributor Grafton fell five per cent in the first quarter of 2024 to £669.2mn, down from £704.3mn.
Grafton attributed the change to “prevailing macroeconomic conditions” as well as “exceptionally wet weather in Ireland”, which hurt demand.
“Trading in the period continued to be challenging in most of our markets and revenue trends were also impacted by price deflation and [weather],” chief executive of Grafton, Eric Born, said.
Average daily revenue was down by 4.5 per cent year on year. This was mainly driven by results in Finland and the UK revenue, where revenue fell by 8.2 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.
In UK manufacturing, a fall in housebuilding activity led to a “sharp decline” in volumes, the company said, while volumes in Finland were affected by a slowdown in the Finnish economy and construction sector.
Irish demand was helped by house-building, which “remains a public policy priority”. Total revenue in Ireland fell by 0.6 per cent over the period.
Ireland’s Prime Minister, Simon Harries, raised the build target for new homes over the next five years to 250,000 compared to 32,700 new home completions in 2023, the company 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,” Born added.
Grafton also announced the completion of its fourth share buyback programme. The programme involved the repurchase of 11.1m ordinary shares at an average price of £9.02.
The company said a total of £343.3m has been returned to shareholders through share buybacks since May 2022.
“We remain focused on being the providers of choice for our customers, investing in our brands and maintaining tight control of costs,” Born said.
“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,” he added.