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Investing.com -- Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) on Thursday reported a return to growth in the third quarter with like-for-like sales increasing 1.8%, exceeding analyst expectations of 0.5%, as the company’s strategic focus on regaining market share in its Merchanting segment showed positive results.
The UK’s largest building materials distributor saw its Merchanting business post a 1.7% like-for-like sales increase, driven by volume growth of 2.5% despite price and mix declining by 0.8%.
This improvement follows a 0.5% decline in the second quarter, demonstrating the effectiveness of management’s initiatives to sharpen the company’s competitive position in a challenging market environment.
Toolstation continued its solid performance with like-for-like sales growth of 2.3%, contributing to total Group revenue growth of 0.3% for the quarter. The company noted that its focus remains on strategy execution and actions to drive further operating margin improvement in this segment.
"As we outlined at our half year results, in the third quarter we have consciously focused on building top-line momentum and regaining market share in the Merchanting businesses," said Geoff Drabble, Chair of Travis Perkins. "I am pleased with how our teams have responded to this challenge with Merchanting returning to revenue growth and our operating performance stabilising."
The company indicated that it has invested in pricing and targeted promotions in what remains a highly competitive market, and will continue to do so in the near-term. This strategic approach has come with a slight cost to margins, with analysts trimming Merchanting margin forecasts by 10-20 basis points, leading to approximately 3% reduction in EBITA forecasts for 2025/26.
Despite these margin pressures, Travis Perkins highlighted good progress on enhancing cash generation, which is further strengthening the Group’s balance sheet as it prepares for the arrival of new CEO Gavin Slark in January.
"...we believe markets are troughing, and we see further share gain and self-help potential. We expect the new CEO to unlock this potential over the coming years. We remain at Outperform," according to RBC analysts.