Heiton Holdings was upbeat about its building merchants and DIY businesses at the group's annual general meeting yesterday, saying that there was no evidence of a downturn in the market.

Following the acquisition of the Cooper Clarke Group (CCG), Heiton now has a British presence, representing about a fifth of its overall turnover of £166 million. CCG's turnover in 1997 was £38.3 million sterling (£43.5 million) and it had an operating profit of £1.9 million sterling. Heiton made a pre-tax profit of £11 million in the year to April 30th.

Mr Richard Hewat, the group's chief executive, said that while the British manufacturing sector was being hit by sterling's strength, research carried out prior to the £22.9 million CCG deal predicted further growth of 1 per cent in the construction industry. But CCG's niche market and customer profile would make it outperform the general construction industry, Mr Hewat said. Mr Peter Byers, finance director, said that any economic downturn did not apply to the construction market at this point and there was no current forecast that it would over the next couple of years.

He added that Atlantic Homecare, the group's DIY company, needed bigger premises in some cases and he expected a new branch to open in the north-west of Dublin shortly. The chain returned to market share growth and increased profitability in 1997.

"We hope, with all the developments going on around Dublin, to have bigger stores which have economies of scale," he said.

After one shareholder voiced his concern about the quality of the stores, Mr Hewat said that it was a difficult business "from the customer service point of view". "Everybody in the business would always be of the view that there are improvements to be made," he said.