27th Oct 2015 08:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - Carpetright PLC Tuesday sales grew in the first 25 weeks of its financial year as the UK demonstrated a positive performance and the rest of Europe began to recover.
The carpet and floor coverings retailer said total group sales in the 25 weeks to October 24 rose 1.2%, although this was a lower increase than the 2.6% growth reported in the same period the year before.
In the UK, total sales rose 2.5%, while like-for-likes were up 4%, compared with 5% and 6.5% the year before, respectively.
In the rest of Europe, total sales fell 6.9%, as they were hit by unfavourable foreign exchange rates. This was an improvement on the 9.4% decline reported the year before, however. At constant currencies, rest of Europe total sales would have grown 2.7%, and like-for-like sales would have been up 5.7%.
Carpetright added that its full-year profit expectations remain unchanged, while it still anticipates a decline in gross profit percentage of between 50 and 100 basis points.
"Our aim to revitalise the Carpetright brand is on track. We have made further progress with the strategy of rationalising and repositioning our store portfolio and are encouraged by the early performance of our four trial concept stores in the UK. We will update shareholders on progress of our strategic initiatives at the time of the interim results in December," Chief Executive Wilf Walsh said in a statement.
"Trading in the year to date remains in line with management's expectations and our view for the year as a whole remains unchanged," he added.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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