UK's Travis Perkins sees weakness in new build housing, renovations

LONDON (Reuters) -Travis Perkins, Britain's biggest supplier of building materials, said it was on track to meet market forecasts for 2023 despite a challenging start to the year as fewer new homes are built and homeowners put off renovation work.

Analysts expect Travis, which sells bricks, timber and new kitchens, as well as equipment for large construction projects, to post adjusted operating profit of 272 million pounds ($339.5 million) this year, down 8% on its 2022 result.

Travis said on Tuesday it was seeing weakness in the half of its business serving new build housing and providing materials for extending, maintaining and improving existing domestic properties.

The other half of the group, which serves large commercial and public infrastructure projects, however, was seeing resilient demand, it said.

Travis warned in February that it would be affected by Britain's weaker housing market this year. Home-owners are putting off projects due to worries over falling house prices and higher interest rates, which also mean housebuilders are building fewer new homes.

($1 = 0.8013 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and Kate Holton)