Travis Perkins boss Geoff Cooper was relieved to get the Olympics out of the way after the builders merchant and Wickes owner enjoyed a September sales recovery.
The firm is still on course to hit City hopes for the year although Cooper complained of “uneven and fragile trading conditions”, sending the shares down 3%, or 31p to 1102p.
Wickes’ sales suffered worst over the quarter, off 7% as the poor summer and the Games put punters off DIY.
Cooper saw a “noticeable improvement” in sales trends once the Games finished and the weather improved. A cold snap boosted plumbing and heating activity, although like-for-like sales still slipped 3.5% in the three months to September. The update came as official figures offered more evidence of the struggles of the wider building industry, after a disappointing 0.9% fall in construction output in August.
The latest setback undid part of July’s post-Jubilee bounceback for the sector, underlining worries over the strength of the overall economy’s recovery between July and September. Construction accounts for less than 7% of the economy but industry output is down 11.9% on a year ago. IHS Global Insight’s Howard Archer said builders would make no contribution to growth in the third quarter: “It is evident that the sector faces ongoing serious headwinds.”
