Grafton profits fall 73% to €64m

THE deteriorating property markets and economic conditions in Ireland and Britain have severely affected financial performance at the Dublin-headquartered building materials/DIY group Grafton.

The group, which owns the Woodie’s and Atlantic Homecare DIY retail chains here, yesterday reported a 72.8% fall in full-year pre-tax profits for 2008, to €64.1 million.

In real terms, this figure was down from a profit of €235.8m at the end of 2007. Elsewhere, operating profit fell by 63.4% to €99.2m and group revenue was down by over 16% at €2.67 billion. Basic earnings per share were also hit hard, falling by nearly 71% to 25.09c.