Travis Perkins plc has unveiled its trading update for the first quarter of 2019 and shown a positive start to 2019 despite uncertain market condition. Group like-for-like sales growth of 7.3% and total sales growth of 5.4% against a soft prior year comparative. There was a strong performance from its Merchanting businesses, including leading distributor CCF, with like-for-like sales growth of 10.6%.
The specialist merchant businesses drove strong like-for-like sales growth, although the on-going political uncertainty poses a risk to the outlook for the commercial construction and housebuilding markets.
CCF continues to win market share through market-leading customer service and relationship management, although growth is likely to moderate through the year, partly due to product availability constraints in the supply chain.
John Carter, chief executive, said: “We have delivered strong sales growth in the first quarter of the year, which reflects both our focus on excellent customer service and the weak comparator in 2018. This performance is all the more encouraging given the impact of the on-going political uncertainty on our end markets.”
