Home improvement chain sees 23% increase for the year so far, boosting parent Travis Perkins' turnover.
Travis Perkins explained in its trading update that "substantially all the turnover" in its retail division in the past 11 months is represented by Wickes, which saw a 2.6% increase in turnover for the 48 weeks to November 28.

While core products were down 1.4% for the home improvement retailer, showroom sales saw an impressive 23.1% boost. Like-for-like (lfl) sales per trading day were up 2.3% for the year so far, while the report also revealed that Wickes made strong market share gains in the nine weeks to November 28, with total lfl turnover per day up by 10.2%.

The trading update, issued ahead of Travis Perkins' closed period for the year ending December 31, 2009, revealed that the group's turnover for the eleven months was down 8.5% compared to the equivalent period in 2008.

The company said: "These sales trends mean that group trading for the last two months since our October interim management statement is a little ahead of our expectations... However, given the probable pressures on both consumer and trade spending in 2010, our outlook for 2010 remains unchanged from that stated two months ago."

In an earlier trading statement, the company explained: "Although some signs of stability in our markets have appeared recently, there remain risks on the downside. The group is well positioned to deal with this outlook, and there continue to be signs of stress amongst some competitors."

Travis Perkins' merchanting division suffered, dropping 13.3%, whilst lfl turnover per trading day was down 14.3%.

However, the group has continued to expand its operation, opening five merchanting branches, two Wickes stores, seven Tile Giant stores and, through its associate company, 26 Toolstation stores, during 2009.