Travis Perkins completes £23m sale and leaseback of seven key sites

Northamptonshire builders merchant Travis Perkins has completed the £23m sale and leaseback of seven sites in the Midlands and the South of England – with the news coming two months after the firm revealed its profits had slumped by 20.3% last year.

The firm said the sale of the properties, which have been acquired by funds managed by Longmead Capital, was part of an ongoing strategy to recycle capital from its freehold portfolio to invest in “destination branches with an enhanced range of value-added services.”

The majority of the sites, which are located in Folkestone, Leicester, Loughborough, Redditch, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Worcester, were purpose built for the company.

All seven sites have been let back to Travis Perkins on 15-year lease agreements.

The listed firm’s profits decreased from £241m to £192m in 2022, prompting it to axe 400 jobs and close nineteen General Merchant and Benchmarx branches in a bid to cut costs. It believes the cuts will deliver around £25m of savings.

Nick Pinney, group property director at Travis Perkins, said: “The sale and leaseback of these high-quality assets allows us to unlock capital to invest in new properties that further enhance our customer proposition. At Travis Perkins Group we continually review our freehold property portfolio to identify value creation opportunities.”

Travis Perkins Group’s freehold property portfolio is currently valued at around £1.1bn.