Shares in Grafton group take tumble
Investors offloaded shares in Grafton, the owner of Woodie’s DIY, Atlantic Homecare and Chadwick’s builders merchants, on the back of fears over sales in Britain, which account for around 55% of the group’s total profits.
Grafton said in September that it would shed 150 of the 7,500 staff in its British operations to trim costs in line with slowing sales, but market confidence took a fresh dent yesterday when industry heavyweight Travis Perkins issued a profit warning and said its bottom line would fall short of expectations by around 10%.
