Travis Perkins plc is a British builders' merchant and home improvement

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

with head offices based in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...

. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

, and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septem ...

History

The company began in 1797, when the Benjamin Ingram company of joiners and carpenters was founded at Beech Street in London. Benjamin Ingram subsequently merged with Perkins to become Ingram Perkins in 1850. Ingram Perkins then merged with Sandell Smythe & Drayson in 1970 to form Sandell Perkins. Sandell Perkins was first listed on the

in 1986, shortly before it merged with Travis & Arnold in 1988, to form Travis Perkins. Subsequent acquisitions have included AAH (46 branches) in March 1994, BMSS (26 branches) in December 1995, Keyline Builders Merchants (101 branches) in May 1999, and Sharpe & Fisher (38 branches) in 1998, Broombys Limited (nine branches) in January 2000, City Plumbing Supplies Limited (48 branches) in July 2002, and Commercial Ceiling Factors (twenty distribution centres) in October 2002, Jayhard (53 branches) in August 2003, and B&G (twelve branches) in October 2003,

Wickes Wickes is a home improvement retailer and garden centre, based in the United Kingdom with more than 230 stores throughout the country. Its main business is the sale of supplies and materials, for homeowners and the building trade. It is listed ...

(171 stores) in December 2004, and Tile Giant in November 2007. The company had a particularly challenging time following the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of ...

; it stopped its

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-i ...

and indicated it was open to declaring a

rights issue A rights issue or rights offer is a dividend of subscription rights to buy additional securities in a company made to the company's existing security holders. When the rights are for equity securities, such as shares, in a public company, it can b ...

. In May 2010, Travis Perkins made a successful offer to acquire

BSS Group BSS Industrial is a British specialist distributor of heating, ventilation, pipeline and mechanical services equipment, based in Leicester. The business was previously part of The BSS Group plc until the group's acquisition by the Travis Perk ...

for £553m, and then acquired the remaining 70% stake in Toolstation in January 2012, and the whole of Solfex in January 2013. In November 2017, Travis Perkins sought support from the local community in

Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Victor ...

, when the oldest timber yard in the United Kingdom, owned by Travis Perkins, was threatened by closure to allow a housing development to proceed. In December 2018, Travis Perkins announced plans to sell City Plumbing Supplies and its other plumbing and heating businesses. In October 2019, Travis Perkins announced this decision had been paused. In June 2020, Travis Perkins sought to cut 2,500 jobs under plans to close 165 branches during the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirm ...

. In October 2020, it was announced that Travis Perkins had sold Tile Giant to Coverings Ltd. In April 2021 the

demerger A demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a merger or acquisition. A demerger can take place through a spin-off by distributed or t ...

of Wickes Group plc was completed. In May 2021 the company announced that it had agreed to sell its plumbing and heating businesses to

H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. Capital is a Miami, Florida–based private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $53 billion of equity capital under management. The firm operates a family of private equity, growth equity, credit/ special situation, prima ...

Operations

The company's product lines include general building materials, timber, plumbing & heating, kitchens, bathrooms, landscaping materials and tool hire.

References

External links

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Yahoo profile
{{Authority control Building materials companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Northampton Retail companies established in 1988 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Wholesalers of the United Kingdom

History

Operations

See also

References

External links