Travis Perkins - Wickes Q4 2019 Trading update and Capital Markets Day: Continued strong performance across both Core and DIFM (Do-it-for-me)

Travis Perkins (TPK) 
Travis Perkins - Wickes Q4 2019 Trading update and Capital Markets Day: 
Continued strong performance across both Core and DIFM (Do-it-for-me) 
 
29-Jan-2020 / 07:00 GMT/BST 
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 
 
29 January 2020 
 
Travis Perkins plc 
 
      Wickes - Q4 2019 Trading update and Capital Markets Day 
 
   Continued strong performance across both Core and DIFM (Do-it-for-me) 
 
Travis Perkins 
 
       In December 2018, the Travis Perkins Group announced a strategic plan 
         formulated around two key pillars; to focus on its advantaged trade 
     businesses, and to simplify the Group to enable a more streamlined cost 
structure and faster decision making. In line with these strategic aims, and 
     following a significant improvement in the financial performance of the 
 Wickes business in the first half of 2019, the Group announced in July 2019 
            the intention to demerge Wickes. 
 
  Acting as separate listed entities will enable the management team of each 
 company to focus on delivering a distinct business plan to deliver the best 
 service to their primary customer base, allocating capital and resources in 
            the optimum way to deliver sustainable returns. 
 
            Wickes 
 
 Today, the Wickes management team is hosting a capital markets presentation 
to set out its strategy as a digitally-led, service-enabled home improvement 
    business, together with updating the market on sales performance for the 
            final quarter of 2019. 
 
         At the event, the Wickes management team will provide detail on the 
      investment case, which will include an overview of the unique customer 
     proposition, financial framework and vision for growth across both Core 
            (Local Trade and DIY) and DIFM (Do-it-for-me). 
 
         Wickes delivered like for like sales growth of 4.5% in Q4 driven by 
  continued strong performance across both Core and DIFM. For the full year, 
           like-for-like sales growth was 8.7% and total sales grew by 7.7%. 
 
Q4 2019 sales growth                        Core  DIFM Wickes(1) 
Like-for-like sales                         5.1%  3.2%      4.5% 
growth 
Total sales growth                          4.2%  1.7%      3.4% 
 
YTD 2019 sales growth                       Core  DIFM    Wickes 
Like-for-like sales growth                  6.5% 14.1%      8.7% 
Total sales growth                          5.7% 12.8%      7.7% 
Two-year total sales LFL growth                             4.0% 
 
David Wood, Wickes CEO, commented: 
 
   "I am delighted to report a strong sales performance for Wickes in Q4 and 
 for the full year, setting us up well for the intended demerger from Travis 
            Perkins, which remains on track for Q2 2020. 
 
"I would like to thank all my colleagues for their hard work, dedication and 
           focus on delivering for our customers, which has driven excellent 
      performance across the year. We are looking forward to our future as a 
     standalone business, building towards our vision of a Wickes project in 
 every home, allowing us to create long-term value for all our stakeholders. 
 
      "We have great confidence in our strategy, which is centred around our 
   strong brand, a distinctive and hard to replicate customer proposition, a 
 uniquely balanced business and a low cost and efficient operating model. We 
       are pleased with the growth Wickes is delivering and confident in our 
    ability to continue to grow. We look forward to providing more detail on 
            this at today's Capital Markets Day." 
 
     The presentation and a webcast of the event will be made available from 
      12.45pm GMT via www.travisperkinsplc.co.uk/investors [1]. An on-demand 
    recording of the event will also be published on the 30th January. There 
            will be no new disclosures on current trading conditions. 
 
Investor / analyst enquiries 
 
Graeme Barnes | [phone] | [e-mail] (Travis 
Perkins) 
 
Zak Newmark | [phone] | [e-mail] (Wickes) 
 
Media enquiries 
 
Justin Griffiths, James White | Powerscourt | [phone] (Travis 
Perkins) 
 
Lucy Legh, Henry Wallers | Headland | [phone] (Wickes) 
 
Footnotes 
 
1) Wickes Q4 like-for-like and total sales growth for the 13 week period 
ended 28 December 2019 compared to the 13 week period ended 29 December 
2018. 
 
ISIN:          GB0007739609 
Category Code: MSCM 
TIDM:          TPK 
LEI Code:      2138001I27OUBAF22K83 
Sequence No.:  43233 
EQS News ID:   962951 
 
End of Announcement EQS News Service 
 
 
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2020 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)