Demand for new housing fuels growth at builders merchant
Travis Perkins said booming demand in housing and infrastructure helped sales for the first three months of the year jump more than 13%.
The builders merchant said revenue in the first quarter to the end of March was up 13.6% on the same period last year.
It said a backlog of social and infrastructure work, along with demand for new housing, help push sales at its merchanting division, which includes building materials, up 17.9%. “Pricing accounted for approximately two-thirds of the growth with manufacturer increases continuing to be passed through in an orderly manner,” it said.
But it said revenue from its tools business Toolstation was down 6% on the same quarter last time which included the period when the UK was coming out of lockdown.
In this morning’s trading update, the firm added: “The Group’s forecast for materials price inflation, which was originally expected to ease into the second half of the year, is now more uncertain with pricing likely to form a higher proportion of sales growth across the year than previously thought.”
The firm is due to release its interim results on 2 August.
Yesterday, materials firm Breedon said housing and infrastructure demand helped swell like-for-like sales at the business by 16% in the first quarter.
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