LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Building materials group Travis Perkins reported a return to underlying sales growth in its third quarter, as actions taken to "sharpen the competitive proposition" in its merchanting operations paid off.
Like-for-like sales over the three months to 30 September were 1.8% higher than last year, following a 1.2% decline in the first half.

Factoring in the 1.4% negative impact from network changes and a 0.1% hit from the lower number of trading days this year, group headline revenues grew by just 0.3% on last year.

Merchanting saw a swing to 1.7% LFL revenue growth, as a 2.5% improvement in volumes was partly offset by a 0.8% hit by price and product mix. That's a stark improvement from the first half when LFL revenues fell by 2.1%.

Conditions in the General Merchant business have improved, but trading in the Specialist Merchants' markets remains "subdued", the company said.

Over at Toolstation, Travis Perkins' other division, LFL sales growth remained solid at 2.3%, thought slightly down from the 2.9% registered in the first six months of the year, though the company said actions were being taken to drive further margin improvement.

"In what remains a highly competitive market, we have invested in pricing and targeted promotions and will continue to do so in the near-term," said chair Geoff Drabble.

That puts year-to-date LFL sales growth at -0.2%

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