DIY chain Wickes has generated strong sales growth in showroom categories and made market share gains, parent Travis Perkins revealed.

Wickes’ total turnover in the 48 weeks to November 28 rose 2.6% and like-for-like sales per trading day advanced 2.3%.

Although sales of core products slid 1.4%, showroom sales rocketed 23.1%.

In the nine weeks to November 28, Wickes’ like-for-like turnover per day climbed 10.2% and the retailer made “strong market share gains”.

Travis Perkins, which also runs eponymous building supply stores and the Tile Giant chain, said that group trading since October had been “a little ahead of expectations” and full-year earnings would be at the upper end of expectations.

However the company cautioned that there remain “probable pressures on both consumer and trade spending in 2010”.