Property market crisis sees half-year sales slump at SIG

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The company said in a trading statement that sales in the six months to 30 June came in at about £1.35 billion, compared with £1.49 billion during the same period a year earlier.

On a like-for-like basis - stripping out the impact of newly-bought businesses - sales fell 17.5%.

In the UK, after a slow start to this calendar year, trading picked up modestly in March then remained broadly stable to the end of June. Ireland, however, remains on a worsening trend.

All areas of SIG's UK operation are worse, even its business supplying products for schools and hospitals, where delays in government-funded projects have hit hard.

Home insulation has been the most resilient, thanks to the government's carbon emissions reduction target introduced last April under which power companies pay to insulate customers' homes.