23rd Jul 2019 11:49
(Alliance News) - United Carpets Group PLC on Tuesday said profit fell sharply in its most recent year due to a tough retail environment in a period which featured an especially hot summer and housing market weakness.
In its financial year ended March 31, the floor covering and carpet retailer's pretax profit came to GBP590,000, well under half the GBP1.5 million profit posted the year before.
Revenue grew 11% to GBP24.0 million, but the company's administrative expenses jumped 16% to GBP13.2 million.
The company is maintaining its final dividend at 0.285 pence per share.
Chief Executive Paul Eyre said: "An unusually hot summer last year, combined with the football World Cup and a softer housing market, made this a challenging year. Despite this, sales increased by 10.4% through supporting our existing store network and further developing new business opportunities which helped increase market share, whilst only making a small positive contribution to profit in the year.
"Profit before tax was within the reduced range anticipated in March reflecting an increasingly difficult retail environment."
"The business remains well placed with a largely franchised store portfolio operating under a trusted brand, delivering good quality and great value products, and able to take advantage of any upturn in the broader market. The current financial year has started positively with like-for like-sales up 4.6% for the first 16 weeks," he added.
Shares in United Carpets were up 2.3% at 5.50 pence on Tuesday morning.
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