Merchant buying group Unimer has described the 12 months to April 2009 as its "most challenging trading period in living memory".
Transactions totalling £739m were processed in the period, representing a decline of 13.6% compared with the previous 12 months. The year was also the "worst ever" for the group in terms of business failures amongst its membership and supplier base.

To combat this the group has reduced its staff by 20% across the business, reduced the frequency of internal meetings and restructured its sales function.

Speaking of the results, md Howard Grant said: "The 12-month period ending April 2009 was witness to an unprecedented downturn in the construction sector. The downturn was started and exacerbated by the deep-rooted international banking crisis.

"As a consequence, Unimer faced its most challenging trading period in living memory. Each way we turned there were bad news and negative business trends. However, the Unimer team battled through to produce a very commendable set of results given the adverse trading environment throughout the year."

Looking forward, Mr Grant added: "The outlook remains challenging with most forecasters agreeing that we may have reached the bottom of the downturn, but that sector activity will not increase over the remainder of 2009 and any upturn will not really be visible until the spring of 2010."