Grafton, which owns the Woodies DIY retail chain in Ireland and Leyland SDM brand in London, said its adjusted operating profit in the second half of 2020 jumped 47% as consumers stuck at home and got cracking on repairs and maintenance.

However, that still left its profit for the year as a whole down 5.6% as the buoyant second half did not quite make up for the disruption to its business in the first six months when coronavirus lockdowns kicked in.

"Last year we saw it very much being small jobs around the home. I think the potential pattern could be that larger projects, things like extensions, kitchens and so forth may come back to the fore," Grafton Chief Executive Gavin Slark told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Slark said a pickup in travel was possible in the second half of 2021, though early patterns in February showed a rise in potential orders for landscaping and garden work in Britain even though the country may be largely out of lockdown in June.

"There's no doubt that as and when travel does come back, there will be a lot of people who will deploy their money on trips abroad but I think this year the availability of free travel is going to be still restricted," he said.

While the shutdown of most Irish construction into April under its strict lockdown has led to a 12% fall in daily like-for-like sales so far this year at Grafton's Irish distribution arm, Slark said there was enough time to make up for that.

Irish households had a record 125 billion euros ($153 billion) in bank accounts at the end of last year, a rise of more than 14 billion from a year earlier.

The government expects that to result in a large increase in consumer spending later this year as coronavirus restrictions start to ease.

Slark said Grafton, which also trades in the Netherlands, had so far experienced only a "tiny impact" from Britain's exit from the European Union, having to source goods from elsewhere when it could not bring some products to Ireland from Britain.

($1 = 0.8195 euros)

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by David Clarke)

By Padraic Halpin