LONDON (Reuters) – Builders’ merchant and DIY retailer Travis Perkins said it expected to outperform competitors in markets it anticipates could worsen in 2012 as global macro headwinds batter the UK.

“The level of uncertainty globally has risen with the Greek debt crisis, and now concerns about what is happening in the U.S.,” Chief Executive Geoff Cooper told Reuters.

“That’s something we’ve got to worry about and I’m sure there will be impact on the UK economy,” he said after Travis Perkins posted a 26 percent rise in first-half profit.

Cooper has also detected caution among its builder customer base beyond the summer.

“They’re telling us that there’s going to be quite a rush of work in the summer,” he said.

“A lot of that is repair programmes that have been brought forward, where previously a new-build programme was going to be launched in the public sector but now isn’t (because of government cuts).

“But further out, builders haven’t got as much work on as they had previously, so our market intelligence tells us that we probably need to be a bit more cautious about next year rather than this year.”

Cooper said he expected Travis Perkins to outperform an overall merchanting market he anticipates will be flat in volume terms in 2011 and an overall DIY market he expected to fall by a “high single digit” percent.

Following the recent administrations of Focus DIY and Moben Kitchens, he expects further consolidation in its markets, particularly in merchanting.

On Friday a survey said consumer confidence fell in July towards a two-year low seen earlier this year, stoking concern cash-strapped consumers will continue to cut spending and hamper a fragile economic recovery.

The gloomy market outlook, which prompted Travis Perkins to hold activity on organic initiatives at current levels, offset the firm’s profit rise, sending its shares down.

The stock, up 13 percent over the last 12 months, was down 4.26 percent at 888 pence at 1000 GMT, valuing the business at 2.17 billion pounds.

“The best case looks to be that current year forecasts will remain unchanged, and we expect 2012 expectations to be lowered,” said Davy analyst Florence O’Donoghue.

The firm, which trades from around 1,800 branches across the UK, made an underlying pretax profit of 140.4 million pounds in the six months to June 30, up from 111.8 million in the same period last year.

It was boosted by last year’s 800 million pounds purchase of plumbing and heating group BSS and market share gains. Revenue was 2.35 billion pounds, up 54.2 percent.

Travis Perkins also trades as Keyline, CCF, City Plumbing and Benchmarx, competing with groups such as Wolseley , and owns Tile Giant and Wickes, competing with the likes of Kingfisher’s B&Q and Home Retail’s Homebase.

It said sales at builders merchant depots open more than a year were up 6.5 percent in July, and up 4.9 percent at BSS. Core like-for-like sales were flat at Wickes, although kitchen and bathroom ordered sales were down 4.4 percent.

The firm, which cut underlying net debt by 87 million pounds to 696 million, is paying an interim dividend of 6.5 pence, up 30 percent.

(Editing by Sophie Walker and David Hulmes)