SIG sees Irish sales drop by 44%

BRITISH building insulation products company SIG, has said that sales in its Irish-based operations fell by around 44% — on a year-on-year basis — in the first half of this year, due to the fall in the property market here and in the overall economy.

In a pre-close trading update — published yesterday — ahead of the publication of its first half results, in August, the company said of its Irish business: “Performance in Ireland has continued to weaken throughout 2009, as a result of the severe downturn in the construction market.”

The combination of SIG’s British and Irish operations account for 50% of group sales. The business also has significant interests across western, central and eastern Europe.

Last year, the group referred to “particularly weak trading conditions in Ireland” as overall group revenues fell by more than 22%.

Yesterday’s update for the first six months of this year also painted a grim picture for the group’s British-based operations — which saw a 22% year-on-year fall in revenues for the period.

“The early part of the year saw depressed activity levels in the UK, exacerbated by bad weather in February and, after a modest improvement in most business streams in March, trading has remained inconsistent, though broadly stable thereafter through to the end of June.”

On a group-wide basis, sales were down 10% at £1.34bn (€1.56bn) — compared to just under £1.5bn at the halfway stage of last year. SIG’s management said that while the economic cycles are at different stages in each of the countries where it operates, the overall trading environment is expected to remain “extremely challenging in the near term”.