Wickes has reported resilient first-half figures but warned that it faces tougher times ahead.
Over the 26 weeks to 2 July, the DIY retailer saw its revenue increase by 1.3% to £822.3m as it made market share gains amid a “challenging macro backdrop”
Like-for-like sales edged up 0.8% year-on-year and 23.4% on a three-year basis.
Adjusted pre-tax profit fell slightly from £46.5m to £45.6m, whilst reported profit reduced from £35.7m to £33.5m, mainly as a result of IT separation costs.
Chief Executive David Wood said: “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.”
Wickes noted that it had seen a softening of the DIY market from the high levels of demand experienced during the pandemic.
Looking ahead, the company stated: “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 £72m to £82m.”
