Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) have said that their Wickes home improvement firm have seen a strong fourth quarter performance.
In the quarterly period, which ended on December 31 Wickes saw sales rise by 3.4% on a year on year basis, whilst sales also jumped 4.5% on a like for like basis.
For the whole of 2019, Wickes had 7.7% sales growth, or 8.7% like-for-like, Travis Perkins said. Notably, the Core unit, meaning the DIY stores, had a 5.7% sales rise in 2019, or 6.5% like-for-like.
The Do-It-For-Me division, which gives customers a tailored service, had a 13% sales climb in 2019. On a like-for-like basis, DIFM sales were 14% higher in 2019.
Travis Perkins delighted with Wickes
David Wood, Wickes CEO, commented:
“I am delighted to report a strong sales performance for Wickes in Q4 and for the full year, setting us up well for the intended demerger from Travis Perkins, which remains on track for Q2 2020.
“I would like to thank all my colleagues for their hard work, dedication and focus on delivering for our customers, which has driven excellent performance across the year. We are looking forward to our future as a standalone business, building towards our vision of a Wickes project in every home, allowing us to create long-term value for all our stakeholders.
“We have great confidence in our strategy, which is centred around our strong brand, a distinctive and hard to replicate customer proposition, a uniquely balanced business and a low cost and efficient operating model. We are pleased with the growth Wickes is delivering and confident in our ability to continue to grow. We look forward to providing more detail on this at today’s Capital Markets Day.”
Travis Perkins demerger deal with Wickes
In December, Travis Perkins updated the market by saying that the proposed demerger with Wickes was ‘progressing well’.
The demerger was announced in July 2019, and a few weeks back the Company said it is ‘progressing well’, and would be completed during the second quarter of 2020.
The decision to emerge from Wickes came as a result of Travis Perkins wanting to focus on trade customers to simplify its business.
Certainly, Wickes is a brand which holds reputation and status among the British high street mainstays.
The decision to demerge with Wickes, could be costly for Travis Perkins looking at the strong trading update today.
Shares in Travis Perkins trade at 1,600p (+1.91%). 29/1/20 12:19BST.
