Galiform Plc, the owner of Howden Joinery, is today issuing a sales update covering the year ended 27 December 2008 and confirms that the profit outcome for the year is anticipated to be in line with management's expectations as at the time of the Interim Management Statement issued on 13 November 2008.

Howden Joinery UK depot sales for the year of £782.9m (2007: £768.4m) were up 1.9%, declining 3.1% on a same depot ⁽¹⁾ basis.

As reported in our Interim Management Statement, performance relative to 2007 deteriorated in the autumn due to more difficult trading conditions. For the last three periods of the year, which ran from 6 October to 27 December, total sales were just over 8% lower as compared to the corresponding periods in 2007.  Sales in the last period of the year were virtually unchanged from 2007, but were around 8% lower after allowing for two additional days trading in 2008.

Next announcement

Galiform will release its 2008 Preliminary Results on 5 March 2009.

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⁽¹⁾Excluding depots opened in 2007 and 2008.