Insulation and roofing firm SIG cuts 900 jobs amid tough trading

Insulation and roofing materials company SIG is to cut 900 jobs as it warned that trading in the second half of the year had become more challenging.

The redundancies equate to around 7% of SIG's workforce. It is also closing 65 branches at a one-off cost of £19m.

Analysts currently expect the group to report a pre-tax profit of between £140m and £163m for 2008, according to the company.

It warned that its turnover in the UK and Irish house building sector has been affected, down 2.2% since the start of July.  But the non-residential sector, which makes up two thirds of turnover was more resilient, it said.