DUBLIN: Building supplies group Grafton said renewed activity in Irish construction appeared to be sufficient to support a sustained recovery, after it reported a 27 percent rise in operating profit last year.
Grafton, which has cut its workforce by a quarter and more than halved its net debt over the past five years, responded to the crisis in Ireland by building up its business in Britain, where it is now the third largest building supplies merchant.
Grafton said yesterday that its operating profit rose to ¤77.2m last year from revenues of ¤1.9bn, three quarters of which came from Britain where the economy has been performing strongly for a year. However, the group’s main merchanting business returned to growth in Ireland in the second half and grew by another seven percent in the first two months of the year, catching up with the near 10 percent seen in Britain.
Ireland’s economy has been gradually improving since it became the first eurozone country to complete a bailout in December and is expected to grow by about 2 percent in 2014.
“The UK didn’t crash and burn by anything like the scale we had in Ireland, but you’re probably something like a year behind where the cycle is,” Chief Executive Gavin Slark said in an interview. Reuters
