Wickes maintain pandemic momentum ahead of AGM

Wickes Group (Wickes) has consolidated the pandemic-driven boom in sales across its business and has maintained its full-year guidance ahead of its annual general meeting (AGM) today.

The home improvement retailer revealed like-for-like sales in the first 20 weeks of its financial year were down 0.6 per cent on the previous year.

Core like for like sales are 7.2 per cent down, but delivered ‘Do It For Me’ (DIFM) sales have spiked 30.9 per cent.

On a three-year basis, which compares with the pre-Covid period, total group sales are 22.4 per cent ahead.

Core sales reflect continued buoyant demand in local trade with trade customer order books remaining at record levels.

Participation in its TradePro scheme remains robust with Wickes adding over 40,000 customers in the year to date.

As for headwinds, the company noted growing inflationary pressure during the period, while maintaining its price positioning.

David Wood, chief executive of Wickes, commented: “Our focus remains on providing our customers with the products and services they need at great value. Our commitment to exceptional value has proven particularly effective amongst our local trade customer base, who continue to turn to us at a time when their own order books are at record levels.