Recovering sales and growth at Wickes and Toolstation have lifted the pair’s parent company Travis Perkins like-for-like sales in Q1 2019 by 7.3%.
Wickes – an IRUK Top500 company – has seen a welcome recovery, with 10.5% sales growth, driven, the company says, core growth in DIY and many of its competitors dropping out of the design and install end of the kitchen and bathroom sector.
Toolstation, meanwhile, Toolstation continued its impressive 25% like-for-like sales and total sales growth, underpinned by the continued expansion of the store network, alongside the launch of the new website at the end of 2018 and the successful extension of online ranges that are helping to increase sales density.
“The Merchanting businesses have maintained the strong growth trend from the end of 2018 and Toolstation continues to grow extremely well, driven by network expansion and existing stores maturing – we remain on track to open 60 new stores in the UK in 2019, with encouraging progress in expanding the network in Europe,” says John Carter, Chief Executive, Travis Perkins.
“Wickes posted encouraging sales growth figures in both core DIY and showroom categories, demonstrating a strong turnaround in Kitchen and Bathroom performance,” Carter continues. “In Plumbing & Heating the milder winter has impacted sales compared to 2018, but our branches and specialist online channels have continued to perform well. The work to operationally separate Plumbing and Heating is progressing to plan and is expected to be completed in Q2.”
The heartening figures come as welcome news, following disappointing results for the year in 2018, which saw Wickes revenues down 2.5% overall and 4.4% in terms of like-for-like.