Howden Joinery Group Plc ('the Group') is today issuing an update on trading for the year ended 25 December 2010.

The Board is pleased to report that the business has continued to perform resiliently and has seen strong performance on all key measures for the year as a whole.

In the last three periods of the year, from 4th October to 25th December, total sales of Howden Joinery UK depots were over 6% higher than in the corresponding period in 2009, if the benefit of an additional day's trading in the 2010 pre-Christmas week is excluded.  This was in line with what had been seen in preceding periods. Total sales of Howden Joinery UK depots for the year of £795.1m (2009: £756.4m) were up 5.1%, rising 3.6% on a same depot basis.

The gross margin performance in the second half of the year continued to progress and it is now expected that profit before tax for the year will be comfortably above the current range of market expectations ¹.

Note 1: The current range of market expectations is believed to be £88m to £94m.

Next scheduled announcement

The Group will release its 2010 Preliminary Results on 3 March 2011.