By Jack Mendel
Home improvement specialists Wickes maintained strong revenue and profits for the first half of the year, bolstered by younger people who turned to DIY during the pandemic.
The businesses had a 1.3 per cent rise in revenue up until July this year, with profit before tax up 6.2 per cent. Its like-for-like sales were up 0.8 per cent on last year at the same time and 23.4 per cent on a three-year basis.
Wickes said it had “record sales” in the period as it raked in £822m while recovering its ‘DIFM’ (Do It For Me) businesses), which had its like-for-like sales up 29.7 per cent.
It also said despite a “recent softening of the DIY market from the very high levels of demand experienced during the pandemic”, combined with a challenging economic environment; it maintains its profit before tax guidance of between £72-82m.
“This was a half in which we achieved record sales” said David Wood, chief executive. “While market volumes have declined, we have made further market share gains”.
“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.
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