Forex hits SIG's results

Foreign exchange movements have hit building products distributor SIG.

The FTSE 250 company posted a trading update for the year to 31 December.

It revealed group sales from continuing operations were around £2.565b, rising 3.6% in constant currency, but a decrease of 1.4% when converted to pounds

In Europe, like-for-like sales increased 1.8% in the fourth quarter due to a significantly improved performance in France, where sales were up 2.5% compared to a decline of 6.6% in the previous quarter.

However, sales from continuing operations on the continent were down 3.4% for the quarter, leading to an overall drop for the year of 8.9% after currency conversions.

In the UK and Ireland, the company reported like-for-like sales dropped 1.0% the final quarter of the year due to challenging trading conditions in the UK Repairs, Maintenance and Improvement market.

The group’s Exteriors business also saw a large hit, with like-for-like sales down 5.9%.

Despite this, SIG said it continues to expect that gross margin will be flat year-on-year and that underlying profit before tax will be within the range of £85m to £90m.