Terwijl Britse dhz-giganten hun winkelbestand afbouwen, groeit Woody's in Ierland met bijna 4%.

Woody's? Ja, Woody's. De dhz-keten van de Ierse Grafton Group, moeder van de Nederlandse Isero-groep. En daarmee is Woody's dus het dhz-zusje van ijzerwarenhandels als Gerritse, Van der Winkel en Breur. Dat dhz-zusje telt 37 winkels, is goed voor 7% van Graftons omzet en noteerde een groei van 3,9% over de eerste 10 manden van 2015: oud-op-oud. Herstel van consumentenbestedingen in Ierland zijn de belangrijkste oorzaak, aldus Grafton.

Uit een bericht van DIY Week: Builders merchanting and DIY group, Grafton Group plc has operations in the UK, Ireland and Belgium. It reported that overall group trading for the period from July 1 to October 31, 2015 was positive. This was against a "competitive backdrop" in the four months to the end of October, driven by "broadly favourable economic and market conditions in the UK and Ireland which supported increasing spending in the residential repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) market". Revenue for the 10 months to October 31, 2015 was £1.87bn - an increase of 6% and 8.7% in constant currency. The rate of growth in the group's average daily like-for-like revenue eased, as anticipated, to 4.8% in the four months to the end of October from 5.3%in the first half.