Group results for Travis Perkins show pre-tax profit edged-up to £299.9m for the year to December 31 2012 from £296.7m last time as revenue climbed to £4,844.9m from £4,779.1m.

At Keyline profits were up 20.2% from £26m to £32m as turnover rose to £604m from £582m.

Keyline was boosted during the year by the failure of its main rival Burdens.

Travis Perkins said: “The failure of the largest civils merchant brought some short-term benefit to Keyline as both customers and suppliers sought to put more business our way.”

The firm is expecting a volatile year but hopes things pick-up in the second half of 2013.

It said: “Since the financial crisis in 2008, the term “roller coaster” could fairly be applied to the gradient of annual and monthly change in our markets.

“Five years later, we have yet to experience a flatter track, and we wait for evidence of a steady recovery from the current unsustainably low levels of activity.

“We think the performance of our markets in 2013 may begin to turn, but it will be mainly through our own endeavours to outperform our competition and manage our operating margin that the group will be driven forward.”