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Travis Perkins PLC said on Tuesday that it had delivered a resilient first quarter performance ‘amid challenging market conditions’, though its sales declined. The Northampton, England-headquartered builders’ merchant said that total sales were down by 2.8% on-year in the first quarter of 2023, on a trading day-adjusted basis. Sales in merchant businesses falling 4.7% on a trading day-adjusted basis. Group revenue fell 1.5% year-on-year. Travis Perkins said that trading volumes in merchanting were impacted by weakness in the new build housing and domestic repair, maintenance and improvement markets. Travis Perkins said that its tool supplier business Toolstation delivered a strong performance in the quarter, with total sales growth of 8.6% and like-for-like sales growth of 4.6%. It has commenced commissioning of its new partly-automated UK distribution centre, which Travis Perkins expects to be fully operational by the third quarter. Travis Perkins said that longer term infrastructure projects, including roads, schools and hospitals, continued as planned. Chief Executive Officer Nick Roberts said: ‘As we had anticipated, trading conditions were challenging in the first quarter, but our diverse exposure across the construction sector has enabled us to deliver a resilient performance. 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. ‘We are focused on ensuring the right balance between cost and capital discipline and investing to deliver against our strategic priorities. The growth opportunities provided by the need to decarbonise the UK’s built environment, improve the energy efficiency of public and private buildings and increase the UK’
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