Travis Perkins (LSE:TPK) PLC said it delivered a “resilient” first-quarter trading performance with total sales down by 2.8% amid challenging market conditions.
In a first-quarter update for the three months to 31 March 2023, the Northamptonshire-based building materials firm said trading volumes in the Merchanting business were impacted by weakness in the new build housing and domestic repair, maintenance and improvement markets.
Nick Roberts, chief executive, said: “The timely actions taken to prepare our businesses for a lower demand environment mean that we continue to expect to deliver a full-year performance in line with market expectations.”
Trading was stronger in the commercial, industrial and public sector markets, which represent just under half of the group’s end-market exposure, which saw more resilient demand.
Travis Perkins (LSE:TPK) said merchanting sales price inflation moderated from the second half of 2022 but remained elevated at 9.0% mainly driven by the rollover of price increases from prior year but also reflective of pass-through of further manufacturer increases on some key product lines in 2023.
Overall, Merchanting total sales were down by 4.7% in the quarter.
Toolstation delivered a good performance in the first quarter with total sales growth of 8.6% and like-for-like sales growth of 4.6% with sales in Europe up 14%.