Howden Joinery Group Plc ('the Group') is today publishing a trading update covering the period from the end of the first half of the year (13th June 2015) to date.

The Board is pleased to report that the Group has seen a good sales performance so far in the second half of the year, including during the important October trading period (period 11). This reflects our willingness to continue to invest in the growth of the business and our entrepreneurial culture.

In light of this, the Group remains well positioned to achieve its expectations for the full year ^{Note 1}. However, it should be noted that the two remaining trading periods together typically account for over 10% of annual revenues.

Trading

Howden Joinery UK depots' total revenue in the second half of the year to 31 October (periods 7 to 11) increased by 12.8%. This was achieved in the face of toughening comparators that have been seen since June. As a result, in the first 11 periods (44 weeks) of 2015 total revenue was up 12.0%, rising 9.3% on a same depot basis.

Gross margin performance has been in line with expectations.

Business developments

Since we released our 2015 Half Yearly Report in July, we have continued to make good progress in a number of areas of the business:

• Depot openings: we have opened 11 new depots, resulting in 25 new depots in the UK so far this year and bringing the total to 614. We are on course to open 30 new depots as expected in the whole of 2015.
• As part of our warehousing strategy, we have entered in to a long term agreement to occupy a new 650,000 sq ft warehouse that is being built near Raunds, which is to the east of our existing national distribution centre in Northampton. We expect that this will be ready for us to begin occupation in the second half of 2016.

In addition, as part of the £70m share buyback programme announced on 25 February 2015, the Group has acquired 6.4m shares. This brings the total acquired this year to 7.2m, for which the consideration was £35m.

^{Note 1: The range of analyst expectations for profit before tax for 2015 is believed to be £206m to £220m.}

Next scheduled announcement

The Group will release its 2015 Preliminary Results on 25 February 2016.

Note for editors:

Howden Joinery Group Plc is the parent company of Howden Joinery. In the UK, Howden Joinery is engaged in the sale of kitchens and joinery products to trade customers, primarily small local builders, through over 600 depots. Around one-third of the products it sells are manufactured in the company's own factories in Runcorn, Cheshire, and Howden, East Yorkshire. The business also has a small operation in France and Belgium, with plans to extend these to Germany and Holland.