THE MONTH TP sales hold up in tough market


Builders merchant group Travis Perkins plc saw revenue grow 3.5% to £6,433m for the 12 months to December 31 2017. However, the merchant’s year- end results also show adjusted operating profit down by £29m (7.1%), due to a combination of factors: higher operating costs in the General Merchanting and Consumer divisions and an (anticipated) full-year profit decline in Plumbing & Heating as well as significantly higher central costs driven by investments in IT and digital platforms, and the cost of new format experiments.


John Carter – TP Chief Executive Officer said: “2017 was a challenging year for the Group, with continuing un- certainty in our end-markets, and declining consumer confidence throughout the year. The main focus has been to recover the significant cost price inflation and on the whole, this has been achieved successfully. Despite the challenging environment, we have continued to invest in our customer proposition for the long term.”


The Travis Perkins general merchanting division increased


sales by 1.7% to £2,109m and added 17 branches in an in- creasingly challenging market. In plumbing and heating, the 0.5% increase in revenue to £1,366m was far better than in recent years. In the second half, sales grew by 2.5%. Like-for-like sales growth was 6.1% in Q4. The Contracts division’s revenue growth of 8.1% to £1,369m was strong across all three businesses in the division. In particular, Keyline gained share as it continued to focus on a specialised heavy civils and drainage product range to a specific customer base.


Grafton Group buys London decorators merchant


Grafton Group has bought Leyland Specialist Decorators Merchants, London’s largest independent specialist decorators’ merchant. The total amount is £82.4m on a debt-free, cash-free basis. Leyland SDM operates 21 branches in some of


Selco gets to 60


Selco Builders Warehouse, part of the Grafton Group, has opened its 60th branch.


The new York branch further strengthens Selco’s presence in Yorkshire, where it currently operates in Bradford and Leeds. York features the full Selco offering, including Selco Hire and a comprehensive kitchen design service. The opening of the York branch follows that of Solihull, Selco’s first of 2018.


Selco will also be opening a new branch in Milton Keynes next month as it continues to seek new locations for branches.


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London’s most prestigious neighbourhoods, including King’s Road Chelsea, High Street Kensington, Shaftesbury Avenue, Victoria, Clerkenwell, Notting Hill. Battersea, Mile End, Clapham High Street and Putney. It sells paint, tools, ironmongery and accessories


and also operates a Distribution Centre at Wembley. Leyland SDM’s revenue and underlying EBITA was £47.8 million and £7.3 million respectively for the year ended 31 December 2017. Gross assets are estimated at £10.0m at completion.


Planning rule relaxation pleases BMF


The Government is right to relax planning rules to make it easier for homeowners and businesses to build additional storeys, according to the Builders Merchants’ Federation.


The BMF wants to see better use made of existing buildings - and allowing building upwards to add extra storeys must be part of the solution. The BMF was responding to an announcement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government after it carried out a consultation seeking views on proposals to enable London to “build up” more easily to reduce the pressure to “build out” in providing much-needed homes - whilst at the same time protecting the Green Belt. The BMF took part in the consultation exercise. John Newcomb, BMF Chief Executive, said: “No-one wants a repeat of bad high-rise housing from the past. But the BMF believes better use can be made of existing buildings.”


East Anglian independent builders’ merchants Ridgeons has opened a new showroom at its Cambridge North branch in Nuffield Road, Cambridge. The £150,000 investment is part of a wider programme of renovation and expansion at the branch.


The showroom comprises 10 kitchens and 23 bathrooms by Symphony and Masterclass Kitchens as well as Neff, Bosh, SMEG, Roper Rhodes, Utopia, Heritage and Ridgeons’ own brand, Instinct, plus a Grohe display wall.


The branch has also added a dedicated Anglia Tool Centre and PlumbStock trade counters and, Ridgeons’ tool hire partner, GR8, has also opened onsite.


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2018


The roll out of the lowcost Keyline format continued, with the third trial branch opened in Telford. In the Conumer division, total sales growth was 4.7%,with sales of £1,589m, driven by Wickes in the first half and by Toolstation sales growing to over £300m in 2017.


Ridgeons shows off in Cambridge North branch


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