Brammer ‘resilient’ despite uncertain Europe
INDUSTRIAL parts and tool distribution group Brammer has enjoyed “resilient” trading and says it continues to take market share.
In the four months since July 1 the Manchester firm saw sales rise 16% on last year, but this was largely down to the £27m acquisition of Coventry-based tool business Buck & Hickman last autumn.
After stripping out Buck & Hickman sales per working day in the UK were down 1.4%.
There was a mixed picture across Europe with sales per working day down 2.4% in Germany, up 1.5% in France, flat in Spain and ahead 4.7% in the Benelux countries. Elsewhere in Europe they were down 11%, “reflecting the difficult market conditions”. But Brammer said it had seen organic sales per working day growth of 3.8% over the 10 months to October 31.
The business made significant cost savings in the fourth quarter, stripping out £5.3m annual costs from its sales, distribution and administrative operations. The cost of doing this has incurred an exceptional charge of around £2.7m.
The company said: “Recent trends have continued and sales in the first two weeks of November have been in line with expectations. While the European economic outlook remains uncertain, our strategy of focusing on key accounts, Insites [Brammer’s spares service based at a customer’s facility] and cross-selling initiatives underpins the growth momentum driving profitable market share gains for the medium and longer term.
“As a result we remain confident in the outturn for the year as a whole and expect to continue to outperform the market.”
