SIG hails recovery of construction sector despite slow UK performance

BUILDING products distributor SIG today blamed Government initiatives that have failed to get off the ground for its slow performance in the UK but hailed the recovery of the construction sector.

The Sheffield-based company said that in the UK & Ireland like-for-like sales for July to October increased by around 3% and were up by around 7.5% in the UK excluding SIG Energy Management, which it said continues to be affected by the “extremely slow” start-up of the government’s Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation.

However, SIG said the recovery in the UK construction market continued to gather pace in the second half of the year, driven by increased demand from the residential sector, although it said this has yet to be seen in the non-residential sector.

Group sales from continuing operations for the year to October increased by over 3%, having benefited from exchange rate movements.

SIG said the improving quarter two sales trend continued into the second half of the year with like-for-like sales up by around 2% in the four months July to October.

Like-for-like sales for the year to date however declined by around 1% due to the poor weather at the start of 2013. 

The company said that while the group’s recent performance in Mainland Europe has improved, market conditions there are expected to remain variable.
In Mainland Europe, like-for-like sales for the last four months increased by around 0.5%, with Poland and Benelux exhibiting strongest progress.

Like-for-like sales in France were also positive but in Germany were slightly down.

SIG said gross margin for the group continues to be slightly ahead of the same period last year.

“Subject, as usual, to any exceptional adverse weather conditions in the remainder of the year, SIG is on track to meet its expectations in 2013,” the company said.