Wickes sales down 2% as big ticket items suffer

Builders' merchant Travis Perkins said like-for-like sales at its Wickes stores were down 2% in the third quarter and 0.5% down for the first nine months of 2011 .

Turnover for the 39 week period to 1 October was up 1.2%. Core product like-for-like sales, representing 80% of turnover, increased by 2.7% while kitchen and bathroom sales were down 12.4%.

The group said the 13 Ex-Focus stores acquired earlier in the year were now all trading as Wickes stores with the final 2 sites having opened on 1 October.

The weak sales at Wickes were counter-balanced by a stronger performance at the group's recently acquired heating and plumbing firm BSS where like-for-like turnover was up 2.3% in the first nine months of the year. Like-for-like turnover for the third quarter increased by 2.6%.

Geoff Cooper, Travis Perkins CEO, commented:"We continue to take market share against a tough market backdrop, confirming the sustainable strength of our organic growth strategy. Our positive merchanting and BSS performance is balancing the effect of a challenging consumer environment for our retail business."

The group said the outlook for 2012 remained unchanged.

Source : The Retail Bulletin
www.theretailbulletin.com/news/wickes_12-10-11/