Unimer reports increased turnover

Merchant co-operative and invoice clearing house Unimer has announced increased turnover for the year ending April 2010.

Turnover of £769m reflects year on year growth of 4.2% with an increase of 8.1% in the volume of transactions processed.

Describing the trading period as “one of the most difficult and challenging for the building materials sector” managing director Howard Grant called the results “outstanding, in a period when many businesses in the sector have gone backwards and have had to retrench and focus on survival.”

The higher levels of trading have been supported by a reduction in the operating costs of the business and a significantly lower level of bad debts over the twelve month period.

Grant said: “Working closely with our merchant members we have managed to proactively support good levels of trade and we have been understanding when their cash flows have been challenged over the last year.

“These excellent results demonstrate that Unimer’s transparent approach to trading continues to add value for our merchant members and for our suppliers. The results also reflect the excellent work and commitment to developing the business, created by the whole of the Unimer team.

“The new financial year has started strongly and we have recently renewed our three year trading agreement with Procurement for Housing. We hope that we will be able to announce more exciting trading initiatives for our members over the next few months.”