Wickes hails ‘strong sales performance’ as demerger remains on track

Travis Perkins-owned Wickes’ like-for-like sales grew 4.5%, which the DIY retailer attributed to a strong performance across its core and ‘Do It For Me’ arms.

For the full year, like-for-like and total sales grew 8.7% and 7.7% respectively.

The planned demerger of Wickes from Travis Perkins – revealed last July – remains “on track”, chief executive David Wood said.

As part of the plan Wickes and Travis Perkins will act as separate listed businesses to ensure each business delivers “the best service to their primary customer base”.

Wood said: “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 grow.”