Travis Perkins plc has announced its Q3 2022 trading update for the three months to 30 September 2022. The Group delivered a resilient third quarter trading performance with total sales growth of 10.7%* and like-for-like sales growth of 7.4%.

The Merchanting businesses continue to outperform their markets, delivering total sales growth of 11.5%* with trading performance remaining consistent throughout the quarter. Travis Perkins General Merchant, the UK’s largest distributor of building materials, saw some slowing of demand through the period in the smaller trade customer segment although demand from larger repair and maintenance contractors held up well. The Specialist merchants (BSS, CCF, Keyline, TF Solutions and Staircraft), which represent around 40% of the Merchant segment by revenue, benefitted from their exposure to predominantly larger subcontractors across new build commercial and housing, industrial maintenance and infrastructure projects to deliver another robust performance during the quarter.

Toolstation, the Group’s supplier of tools, accessories and lightside building products, returned to growth with total sales up by 6.1%* and like-for-like sales up 0.2% year-on-year with the trend improving throughout the quarter supported by a positive response from customers to the new catalogue in September. The European business continues to progress well, seeing total sales growth* of 23.3% in the quarter, and Toolstation remains on track to roll out around 80 new branches in 2022, split equally across the UK and Europe.

Outlook

Given the challenging market backdrop, the Group remains focused on the recovery of elevated levels of input cost inflation and continues to tightly manage the operating cost base.

Whilst forward visibility is limited, reflecting the uncertain macroeconomic situation, the Group expects to build on the current resilient performance and deliver a full year operating profit around the middle of the current range of market expectations**. This is after absorbing the impact of the unforeseen additional bank holiday in September.

* Trading day adjusted
**The range of market expectations is derived from company compiled analyst consensus. This stood at £304m to £340m at time of publication and can be reviewed via: https://www.travisperkinsplc.co.uk/investors/analyst-consensus