AFTER A challenging 2010, CRH yesterday reported a strong start to the current year, posting a rise of 6 per cent in like-to-like sales for the four months to the end of April, boosted by more favourable weather than in early 2010.

The company expects like-for-like to continue ahead of 2010 for the first half of 2011.

Europe led the recovery in sales, with a like-for-like sales increase of 8 per cent. The company’s operations in the US experienced a more modest 3 per cent increase in revenue.

Sales from its US distribution division increased by 13 per cent, products were up 3 per cent, while its materials division was broadly flat in comparison to last year. The company noted that the performance in May, June and July would give a more accurate indication of underlying demand in what is traditionally a seasonal business.

Speaking after the company’s agm in Dublin yesterday, chief executive Myles Lee said the company’s US business was well balanced between residential, non-residential and infrastructural build. The short-term federal funding programme in the US meant states were focusing on repair and maintenance work rather than new build, a focus that would benefit CRH.

On the issue of rising energy costs, he said the company’s ability to pass on input costs in markets such as Poland, Finland, Switzerland and Turkey would compensate for the difficulty in recovering higher input costs in countries such as Ireland and Portugal.

Representatives from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign again protested outside the agm at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire, as they did last year. The protesters called for the company to dispose of its 25 per cent interest in an Israeli company, arguing that CRH has failed to comply with international law.

One shareholder, Peter Good of Good Concrete, also expressed concern about what he said was the cost of a possible environmental clean-up related to a CRH site near Johnstown, Co Kildare.