Wickes boosted by market share gains
DIY retailer Wickes seen it revenue grow by 1.3% to £822.3 million in the first half of its financial year as it made market share gains against a challenging backdrop.
In the six months to 2 July, like-for-like sales edged up 0.8% year-on-year and by 23.4% on a three-year basis.
Meanwhile adjusted pre-tax profit came in at £45.6 million compared to £46.5 million a year earlier. Reported profit before tax was reduced to £33.5 million from a previous £35.7 million mainly as a result of IT separation costs.
David Wood, Wickes chief executive, said: “This was a half in which we achieved record sales, as customers continued to be attracted to our market leading value, choice and availability and I would like to thank all my colleagues for their hard work and support in delivering these results.
“While market volumes have declined, we have made further market share gains and delivered a particularly strong performance in trade, with an acceleration in the rate of sign-ups to our TradePro membership scheme.”
During the period the retailer saw a recovery in ‘Do-it-for-me’ delivered sales which were up 29.7% like-for-like.
Wood said: “In DIY, we continue to cater for an increased number of younger customers who first turned to home improvement during the pandemic, while in DIFM, delivered showroom sales have remained robust as we launched new kitchen and bathroom ranges and worked through the elevated order book.”
As reported in its trading update on 26 July, Wickes said it has seen a softening of the DIY market from the very high levels of demand experienced during the pandemic.
Looking ahead, it added: “While the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we are confident that we have the right model to continue outperforming the market. We reaffirm our guidance for full year adjusted pre-tax profit in the range of £72 million to £82 million.”
