DIY surge boosts sales at Grafton's Woodie's retail arm

Grafton Group has said it noted a positive performance from its Irish operations in the second half of last year, with its merchanting business continuing to perform strongly and its Woodie’s DIY retail arm benefiting from a pick-up in consumer confidence and spending.

The Dublin-based builders merchanting group — which now reports in sterling and has its shares listed in London to reflect the dominant contribution of the UK market to its earnings — yesterday, in its final trading update before publishing annual results in March, reported a 6.3% year-on-year jump in group revenue for 2015 to £2.21bn (€2.94bn).

In constant currency terms, revenue rose by nearly 9%. UK merchanting — the group’s main division — grew annual revenues by 8.9%.