HOWDEN Joinery owner Galiform said kitchen sales succumbed to the cold snap and warned markets would remain tough for the rest of the year.
In a traditionally quiet time for the business, like-for-like sales at Howden Joinery fell 4.1% in the two months to February 20 amid heavy snowfall.
Shares in the firm, which has an outlet in Lockwood and which sells around 400,000 kitchens a year, fell more than 5% as the group also maintained its “cautious” outlook for 2010.
Pre-tax profits for the year to December 26 were down 8% to £68.7 million due to pension costs, although at the operating level Howden made progress after a previous cost crackdown in 2008.
The firm currently has 462 depots.
