Trading Statement

At todays Annual General Meeting of SIG, Europes leading specialist distributor of insulation, roofing and interior products, the Chief Executive, David Williams, made the following comments about trading:

“UK sales into residential building sectors have been strong, benefiting the Roofing and Insulation operations. However, the reduced demand from the commercial new build property sector which we reported in March has continued, adversely affecting sales from our Interiors business in the UK and Eire. In Europe, where sales are heavily weighed towards non-residential building sectors, market conditions have been difficult in the first 4 months. However, sales increased again in France, and in Germany fell by less than 1%, which we believe to be considerably better than the market, and represents a further strengthening of our position. Compared with a very strong performance in the USA in the early part of 2001, although sales were down in the first four months some improvement was seen in April. Despite weaker conditions in most of our markets the Group remains confident of continued progress in 2002.”