Travis Perkins hails ‘positive start’ to 2019

Travis Perkins

Travis Perkins shares rose on Wednesday after the company published an upbeat set of first quarter results.

The home improvement and building materials retailer said that it had enjoyed a ‘positive start’ to the year, with with group like-for-like sales up 7.3%, and total sales rising 5.4%.

Travis Perkins highlighted that it enjoyed strong merchanting like-for-like sales growth of 10.6%.

In addition Toolstation growth remained resilient, with total sales up by a quarter during the three month period.

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The company also said that it had seen ‘good recovery’ at its Wickes shops, with 10.5% like-for-like sales growth.

Nevertheless, Travis Perkins said that full-year expectations remain unchanged, due to the early stage of the year and ‘uncertain market conditions’.

Commenting on the latest results, John Carter, Chief Executive, said:

“We have delivered strong sales growth in the first quarter of the year, which reflects both our focus on excellent customer service and the weak comparator in 2018. This performance is all the more encouraging given the impact of the on-going political uncertainty on our end markets.”

Looking ahead, he added:

“The actions set out at our capital markets day in December 2018 to deliver best in class service to trade customers and to simplify the Group are well underway. We are making good progress on cost reduction activities and expect to meet our cost reduction targets this year. Overall expectations for the Group in 2019 remain unchanged.”

Travis Perkins is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index on the London Stock Exchange. It has been publicly listed since 1986.

Shares in the London-listed retailer (LON:TPK) are currently trading +2.31% as of 14:40PM  (GMT).