Grafton 'cautious' after pick-up in trading flags in May and June

Shares in Grafton Group PLC fell on Thursday after it said it has had a ‘slow start’ to 2025 and isn’t expecting a ‘significant increase’ in sales volumes for the year as a whole.

Grafton shares were down 7.2% to 923.90 pence early Thursday in London, the worst performer in the FTSE 250 index of mid-cap stocks.

Grafton is a Dublin-based building materials distributor and do-it-yourself retailer.

It reported £1.25 billion in revenue for the first half of the year, up 10% from £1.14 billion a year before. The recent total benefited from two acquisitions, Salvador Escoda in Spain and HSS Hire Ireland, which had six months and one month’s effect, respectively, in the recent half-year.

Average daily like-for-like revenue was up 2.4% on the year before. Within this, Distribution revenue was up 3.7% in Ireland and 2.8% in the Netherlands, but only 0.2% in the UK. It was down 4.2% in Finland. On the same terms, revenue from Retailing was up 7.6% and from Manufacturing up 5.2%.

After a slow start to the year, trading picked up, Grafton said, but then dropped away again from mid-May into June.

‘Trading activity recovered strongly after a subdued start to the year however there was a slow down in momentum from mid-May and into June as a spike in geopolitical uncertainty appeared to dent consumer confidence in the period,’ commented Chief Executive Officer Eric Born.

‘Though we remain cautious about the timing of a broader recovery, particularly in the UK and Finland where markets remain challenging, we remain very well positioned to capitalise on our market leading positions as the cycle turns.’

On Wednesday, Grafton said it had completed on Tuesday the share buyback it started in early March. Grafton bought back 3.3 million shares at an average price of £9.11. The shares repurchased represented 1.7% of the company’s total when the buyback began. They will be cancelled.

Grafton will release its full half-year results on September 4.

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