United Carpets to top full year expectations

24th Feb 2014 09:14

United Carpets attracted buying interest after the UK's second largest chain of specialist retail carpet and floor covering stores revealed that second half trading has been better than expected and as a result the group will beat full year expectations. On a like-for-like basis, sales for the 21 weeks of its second half to date are up 5.4% versus the same period last year. The company notes, however, that while this performance is encouraging, the improvement should be viewed in the context of a weaker trading period last year that was affected by heavy snowfall. Still, United Carpets is certain the positive performance owes much to actions taken to restructure the business. During 2012, it decided to close a significant proportion of its store base and re-evaluate the business, to create a smaller entity, better able to operate successfully in the current retail environment. The restructuring was implemented over the latter half of 2012 and during 2013 and has resulted in a reduction in the number of stores from 85 to 59 today, of which 48 are franchised and 11 are corporate stores. "The core store network has responded well to the changes and is showing the benefits of the restructuring, particularly in the last few months," said the company in its trading statement. More broadly, United Carpets believes there has been a slight improvement in confidence amongst consumers, though the overall market still remains "very challenging". The good second half performance means United Carpets now expects its final results for the year ending March 2014 to be materially better than market expectations. Paul Eyre, Chief Executive of United Carpets, said: "We have been encouraged with trading in the early part of this calendar year which will flow through to better than expected year end numbers. The changes we have made have transformed our business and with the economy as a whole appearing to move in the right direction, I am increasingly optimistic about the future."In morning trade United Carpet shares were up 34.5% or 2.38p to 9.5p, valuing the company at £7.43m. KP