22nd Oct 2019 10:17
(Alliance News) - Travis Perkins PLC on Tuesday reported a "solid" third-quarter trading performance and said that it has decided to pause the sale process of its Plumbing & Heating business for the time being due to market uncertainty.
The builder's merchant did say however that the process to demerge the Wickes home improvement business remains on track and is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2020.
Travis Perkins shares in London were trading 3.6% higher at 1,543.30 pence each on Tuesday morning.
For the third quarter ended September 30, the company's total group sales increased 3.8%, with like-for-like sales rising 3.4%. Year-to-date total sales grew 3.6%, while comparable sales increased 4.7%.
Travis Perkins's Merchanting businesses delivered like-for-like growth of 1.6%, while tools and accessories focused retail chain Toolstation saw 15% growth. The Retail segment, Wickes, achieved like-for-like sales growth of 9.7% in the quarter.
"The group delivered a solid performance in Q3, despite trading conditions becoming incrementally more challenging through the course of the summer as a result of the on-going market uncertainty. Though the group maintains a cautious outlook for the near-term, full year performance remains in line with our expectations," said Chief Executive Nick Roberts.
"The plan to simplify the group's portfolio of businesses remains the right one, with good progress made through the quarter towards reducing cost and complexity and enabling greater focus and more disciplined capital allocation to our advantaged trade-focused businesses," Roberts added.
Travis Perkins said it remains on track to remains on target to achieve its planned cost reductions in 2019, with actions identified or already underway to achieve GBP20 million to GBP30 million of annualised savings by mid-2020.
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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