Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Travis Perkins, the UK’s biggest builders merchant, delivered a resilient third quarter trading performance with total sales growth of 10.7%* and like-for-like sales growth of 7.4%.
The Merchanting businesses saw total sales growth of 11.5%* with trading performance remaining consistent throughout the quarter. Travis Perkins General Merchant, saw some slowing of demand through the period in the smaller trade customer segment although demand from larger repair and maintenance contractors held up well. The Specialist merchants (BSS, CCF, Keyline, TF Solutions and Staircraft), which represent around 40% of the Merchant segment by revenue, benefitted from their exposure to predominantly larger subcontractors across new build commercial and housing, industrial maintenance and infrastructure projects to deliver another robust performance during the quarter.
Toolstation, the Group’s supplier of tools, accessories and lightside building products, returned to growth with total sales up by 6.1%* and like-for-like sales up 0.2% year-on-year with the trend improving throughout the quarter supported by a positive response from customers to the new catalogue in September. The European business continues to progress well, seeing total sales growth* of 23.3% in the quarter, and Toolstation remains on track to roll out around 80 new branches in 2022, split equally across the UK and Europe.
Nick Roberts, Chief Executive, said: “The Group has delivered a solid performance during the third quarter with the Merchanting businesses again outperforming their markets and an improved performance in Toolstation. We continue to benefit from our diverse end market exposure from small independent builders through to large contractors delivering national infrastructure projects.
“During the second half of the year we have seen growing macroeconomic uncertainty. We are focused on maintaining cost discipline in our businesses and the actions taken to simplify our operating structure in recent years have created the flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions.
“All of our businesses see opportunities to further develop their propositions to meet our different customers’ needs, as they seek to navigate an increasingly complex construction landscape, characterised by new environmental and safety legislation and a commitment to deliver against net zero targets. We remain confident that our market-leading businesses, backed by focused capital allocation, a strong balance sheet and significant strategic growth opportunities, leave us well placed to outperform in our markets.”
