Travis Perkins appoints rival SIG's outgoing CEO as new boss

By DhanushVignesh Babu

(Reuters) -British building materials supplier Travis Perkins has appointed Gavin Slark as its new CEO, the company said on Friday, who will take on his new role after leaving peer SIG in December.

Shares in Travis climbed 5.9% in morning trade, making it the top gainer on the FTSE mid-cap index while SIG was a top loser on the FTSE small-cap index, falling 8.3%.

Industry veteran Slark will step down from SIG by December 31, and join Travis as CEO and executive director no later than January 1 next year, the companies said in separate statements.

"Slark is well respected in the market from the value he created during 11 years at Grafton and is a proven operator in building materials in the UK," analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note.

Between 2006 and 2011, Slark was CEO of the BSS Group, the UK's largest distributor of pipeline and heating solutions, before its acquisition by Travis. He headed Grafton Group between April 2011 to December 2022.

Pete Redfern, Travis' former chief executive, stepped down in March due to ill health, just eight months into his appointment.

SIG reported like-for-like sales growth of 2% in the first quarter, although shares have sunk almost 50% since Slark took over as CEO in February 2023.

It said that demand remained "significantly" below historical levels, but had started seeing signs of volume stabilisation in the majority of its markets.

Travis' first-quarter comparable sales fell 2.4% and trading remained challenging, it said. It warned of flat profit for this year in April, below analyst expectations, sending shares down to more than a 15-year-low.

(Reporting by DhanushVignesh Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rachna Uppal)