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- New boss Pete Redfern says Travis Perkins has become ‘distracted’
Travis Perkins’ new boss Pete Redfern warns the group has become ‘distracted’
Travis Perkins cut his full-year guidance for the second time in three months after the Toolstation owner suffered another disappointing sales quarter.
The builders, tradesmen and home improvement group told investors they expected full-year adjusted operating profits to be around £135m, below August guidance of £150m and initial hopes. of £180 million.
Boss Pete Redfern, who joined last month from housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, said it was “clear” that Travis Perkins “has allowed himself to become distracted and too internally focused”, leading to poor performance.
Redfern outlined the “immediate priorities” to help Travis Perkins return to growth, including “driving and incentivizing branch performance and motivation (and) identifying other ways to make the business run more efficiently.”
He plans to combine his CEO role with responsibilities as CEO of the company’s struggling general trading business, allowing him to “shorten reporting lines and develop our new strategy” alongside operational leaders and group management. .
Revenue fell 5.7 percent in the three months to September 30, driven by an 8.2 percent drop in its commercial segment.
Travis Perkins said its General Trade business had seen a loss of market share over the summer, with both volumes and margins falling.
Toolstation’s strong growth of 2.9 percent, driven by 9.6 percent growth in the UK and Benelux, could not offset the decline.
Travis Perkins is on track to close his loss-making French Toolstation business.
The group said: ‘Overall, the group’s key end markets are stabilizing with some very early signs of recovery.
“Management expects to see positive growth in these underlying markets over the next 12 months, but this growth will be slow and non-linear at first, and the benefit to financial performance will begin to materialize in the second half of 2025.”
Travis Perkins stock They were down 5.6 per cent to 870.5p in early trading, but have still added almost 20 per cent in the last 12 months.
Redfern said: “My first few weeks at Travis Perkins Group have reaffirmed that this is a business with many strengths: the quality of our nationwide branch network, strong relationships with customers and suppliers and, above all, an experienced team of branch managers and commercial leaders within the business.
‘However, it is clear that the group has allowed itself to become distracted and too internally focused, leading to poor performance in recent periods.
“We now need to refocus on operational execution: delivering great products and great customer service and better leveraging our reach and scale.”
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