National retailer Wickes said it has experienced “good growth momentum” throughout the start of 2025, enjoying a healthy boost to its retail sales, and seeing further recovery to its previously-declining design & install business.
In the first 17 weeks of the year, Wickes reported earning revenue of £396.7m. This is healthy growth of almost 10% year-on-year, and like-for-like revenue growth of 9.2%. According to the retailer, this boost was particularly strong in its building, garden and decorating categories, and was primarily driven by volume growth.
Although seeing a more flat performance in comparison – with a slight 0.4% year-on-year dip – Wickes also said its big ticket design & install business has continued its recovery. Around this time last year, Wickes reported that its design & install business was down by almost 20% year-on-year, blaming the decline on an “challenging market conditions”, at the time.
However, the retailer said its design & install business had begun to “stabilise” in the back end of last year, and these latest figures show that this trend appears to have continued into 2025.
As well as its design & install revenue recovery, Wickes also said it had “achieved another consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth in ordered sales”. According to the retailer, this growth was down to actions taken last year to approve its customer offer and experience.
Last year, Wickes announced plans to reduce its number of kitchen and bathroom advisors. Up to 200 roles were at risk of being cut as the company looked to reduce its numbers of advisory staff, but increase its number of design consultant roles.
In its latest trading update, Wickes also gave an update on its upcoming store openings. The retailer said it plans to open between five to seven new stores in 2025, four of which will be former Homebase stores.
This means the retail giant currently has a total of 228 stores across the UK. Wickes has also refitted three more stores this year already, and now estimates that around 80% of its current store network has been updated to the new format.
“This has been a strong start to the new financial year, with the further increase in sales driven exclusively by volume growth, as more customers shop with us,” explained David Wood, CEO of Wickes.
He continued: “Within Retail, we have gone from strength to strength. We have taken further market share and seen a very good market outperformance in timber, hardware, decor and garden. In Design & Installation, we are benefitting from the actions taken to enhance the Wickes offer. This is a segment demonstrating real momentum, with a second quarter in a row of ordered sales growth.
“While we continue to be mindful of consumer sentiment and a challenging external environment, we have a strong platform in place and we are well set to continue delivering against our strategy.”
