THE SEVERE winter cost DIY and builders’ merchant Grafton €25 million in sales, but the group is hoping that it can make up the lost ground over the rest of the year.

In a management statement issued at its annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, the company, which owns the Woodies and Atlantic Homecare chains, said the bad weather at the beginning of the year had hit sales.

January’s revenues were €25 million below that of the same month in 2009. Group turnover for the first four months of the year was €617 million, €22 million or 3.5 per cent behind the same period last year.

However, executive chairman Michael Chadwick said the signs were positive for the rest of the year.

The group’s statement said that trading in the UK, which accounts for 70 per cent of Grafton’s revenues, picked up with turnover growing over the three months since January.

“In Ireland, sales continue to be below levels achieved in 2009 but the rate of decline has reduced,” the company said.

The builders’ merchants businesses in Britain are showing signs of recovery, and sales in this division were up 4 per cent in the three months to the end of April.

“The group has seen a strong resurgence in new house building in the UK and is optimistic that the positive effects of this on its businesses will continue,” Grafton said.

The group spent €1.7 million on measures designed to cut costs in the first three months of the year, a move which saw it lay off 15-20 people. The initiative will save it €4.2 million a-year.

Grafton has plans to refinance part of its debt later this year. Its net debt on December 31st last year was €322 million.

Mr Chadwick said that it would reveal how much of its liabilities it planned to refinance “when it is appropriate”.