26th Apr 2005 07:00
Carpetright PLC26 April 2005 26 April 2005 Carpetright plc Pre Close Trading Update Carpetright plc, Europe's leading specialist carpet and floor coveringsretailer, today announces its pre close trading update for the second half. Thiscovers the trading period from 31 October 2004 to 23 April 2005 and representsthe first 25 weeks of the second half of the financial year ending 30 April2005. The UK and Republic of Ireland business has recorded a total sales decrease of3.8% with like for like store sales down by 5.9%. Gross margin has increased by0.9 percentage points compared to last year. The store expansion plans continue to make good progress with the businesstrading from 375 stores. Of these 31 are in the new small store format and atotal of 17 stores are trading in the Republic of Ireland. Our strategy ofmoving from A1 retail sites to bulky goods parks has continued and this willonce again generate additional profits for the Group. We expect the net profiton the disposal of assets to be around £9m for the year which is inclusive ofthe profit on disposal of our freehold property in Croydon as well as the losson disposal of the Carpet Express distribution business. On 26 January 2005 Allders Department Stores Limited was placed intoAdministration. The subsequent closure of a number of the Allders stores hasresulted in 21 of the Group's concessions departments being shut down. The Groupnow trades from 26 concessions in total, 16 in Debenhams, eight in BHS and twoin the remaining Allders. Whilst this closure has caused some short term tradingdisruption, leading to a small shortfall in sales and profits, the move tostronger trading partners should improve performance going forward. The Belgium and Netherlands business has recorded total product sales in localcurrency down 0.6% compared to last year. Gross margin has increased at asimilar growth rate to that achieved in the first half. Lord Harris of Peckham, Chairman and Chief Executive said: "Our UK and Republic of Ireland business has had a difficult half within aweakening consumer environment and set against strong comparatives last year.However, we continue to grow margin and our store expansion plans remain ontrack. The business has once again generated good profits from the developmentof our portfolio of retail sites. Our business in Belgium and Netherlands hascontinued to make solid progress. Whilst the trading environment has become moredifficult in recent months we believe that our strong competitive position andfurther expansion plans will enable the business to continue to grow marketshare." The Group's full year results for the year to 30 April 2005 will be announced on28 June 2005. These will be prepared under UK GAAP. It is planned to publish therestatement of these results under IFRS on 16 August 2005. For further enquiries please contact Carpetright plc Lord Harris of Peckham, Chairman and Chief ExecutiveDarren Shapland, Group Finance Director 01708 525522 Citigate Dewe RogersonPatrick Toyne-Sewell/Sara Batchelor 020 7638 9571 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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