Travis Perkins issues weather warning

14th Dec 2010 07:56

Travis Perkins, the builders' merchant buying plumbing supplies firm BSS for £½bn, grew turnover by 6.5% in the 11 months to 30 November, though snow has affected business this month.The owner of the Wickes DIY chain said it continues to gain like-for-like market share in both its merchanting and retail divisions.In merchanting, turnover rose 8.3% with like-for-like turnover per trading day up 7.8%, though that rose to 10.5% in the two months to the end of November. Total sales at Wickes were up 2.7% in the 47 weeks to 27 November. Like-for-like turnover per trading day was up 0.6%, with a 12.5% jump in kitchen and bathroom sales cancelling a 2.1% drop in core products.Things picked up in the final eight weeks of the period when like-for-like turnover per day increased 4.2%. Travis said there was some evidence of buying ahead of January's VAT hike to 20%. "Whilst the most recent two months' trading has seen a continuation of both satisfactory market growth and market share gains, the exceptionally poor weather at the beginning of December is expected to have some impact on our sales trends and financial performance for the last month of the year," the company warned."These trends mean that our outlook for the year as a whole remains unchanged from that stated in our June interim results announcement made in July."The £588m BSS acquisition completes today.