Travis Perkins reports positive start to 2021
Travis Perkins
712.50p
16:35 24/04/24
Travis Perkins said it made a positive start to 2021 with good sales growth across its business but the builders merchant left its expectations unchanged.
FTSE 250
19,719.37
17:09 24/04/24
FTSE 350
4,419.71
17:09 24/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,374.06
16:44 24/04/24
General Retailers
3,926.04
17:09 24/04/24
Like-for-like sales excluding Wickes rose 17.4% in the three months to 27 March from a year earlier and 11.8% from two years before, the FTSE 250 company said in a trading update.
Sales were driven by strong demand for repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) products as people did up their homes during lockdowns. At Toolstation, which sells to consumers and trade customers, like-for-like sales rose 42%.
Travis Perkins shares rose 3.1% to £16.95, their highest value since February 2020, at 08:24 BST.
The company is demerging its Wickes DIY business. It said the transaction was due to complete on 28 April when Wickes shares start trading. Wickes' like-for-like sales rose 19.7% in the first quarter.
Nick Roberts, Travis Perkins' chief executive, said: "The group has enjoyed an encouraging start to the year. We are encouraged by the robustness of the RMI market and the continued recovery in our other key end markets. However, at this early stage in the year, our expectations remain unchanged as we continue to make progress on the delivery of our longer-term strategic plans."
Roberts said prices of timber, copper, steel and other raw materials rose faster in the first quarter than in the second half of 2020 but that so far this was manageable. There were also shortages of some products, including lightside items shipped from Asia, but that there was no material impact at this stage.