Building materials group Wolseley said this morning that trading profit for the last 11 months fell 28 per cent and market conditions were likely to continue deteriorating.
The world's biggest distributor of plumbing and heating materials said it would pay no final dividend for 2008, as it focused on taking necessary action to ensure it remained within its banking covenants.
Wolseley owns and operates a number of builders' merchants and DIY businesses in Ireland, including Brooks, Heat Merchants, Tubs Tiles and Electric Merchants.
Last month the company said it would shed 150 jobs from its Irish workforce of around 1,200
In its statement, Wolseley said its results "reflect tougher trading conditions in Ireland throughout the period combined with an increasingly difficult UK housing market".
It said not paying a dividend this year will result in a cash saving of around £150 million, it said, adding it will revert to paying a dividend "as soon as it is prudent to do so".
The group, which has cut 6,000 jobs since last August, said trading conditions in most of its markets had deteriorated since it last updated the market in May.
"The deterioration in some of our key markets continues and it is likely that conditions will get tougher still," chief executive Chip Hornsby said in a statement. "In these unprecedented circumstances, driving cost reduction, enhancing cash flow and closely managing the balance sheet, remain key priorities."
The company has experienced a rapid deterioration in market conditions in the UK, particularly with new housing, and many other European markets continuing to soften.
In the US, housing and repairs, maintenance and improvement (RMI) markets have also softened further while commercial and industrial markets remained stable, it added.
Additional reporting Reuters
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