Travis Perkins sees satisfactory year ahead |
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Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:45
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LONDON: Building materials company Travis Perkins Plc. said its business has made progress with turnover for the four months of 2006 rising by 9 per cent from a year ago.
The company said in a statement that overall trading is in line with expectations with merchanting performing more strongly than retail.
Reiterating the projections made in March, the company said trading conditions would continue to be challenging for the remainder of the first half as housing market indicators showed that activity levels would improve gradually in the second half. It expects the second half performance to be stronger than the comparative period in 2005.
Turnover at its merchanting division is expected to rise by 2.8 per cent in the first four months of 2006 with specialist merchanting performing ahead of general merchanting, the company said. Like-for-like sales per trading day for the division are likely to fall by 1.6 per cent but this is in line with expectations.
The company's Wickes stores are also recovering slowly from difficult market conditions at the beginning of the year, in view of weak consumer spending. Total turnover for the 16 weeks ended 22 April was 6.1 per cent lower, with like-for-like sales per trading day down 9.4 per cent.
Chairman Tim Stevenson said the company continues to exercise tight control over costs and cash flow remains good with average net debt better than expectations. He also said merchanting productivity is up by 4 per cent over the comparable period in 2005 and retail productivity is ahead of expectations.
Travis Perkins shares closed at 1,566 pence Friday, valuing the group around 1.9 billion pounds.
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High street slowdown hurts Travis Perkins 