Carpetright has revealed a positive set of interim financials for the 26 weeks ended 31st October 2015, recording “significant growth in group underlying profit to £9m, continuing the journey to transform the business”.
Group revenue increased 1.4% to £231.2m, and profit before tax up by £0.4m to £7.1m – an increase of 6%. Like-for-like UK sales increased by 3.7% y-o-y.
Across the group's business in the rest of Europe, like-for-like sales increased by 5.5% in local currency terms.
Commenting on the results, Wilf Walsh, chief executive, says: “I am pleased to be able to report the group continued its positive like-for-like sales performance and grew profits significantly during the first half. In parallel, we made good further progress with a wide-ranging programme of initiatives to extend the appeal of the Carpetright brand and address significant legacy property issues.
“The trial of a new retail concept and brand identity is, as expected, producing much valuable customer insight. A comprehensive customer research study will be completed by the end of January 2016, giving us a more detailed picture which will inform our decisions on which elements we will roll-out across the existing estate.
“In a retail market which remains very competitive, we are confident that our plan to build on Carpetright’s strong foundations, modernise the business, and ensure we capitalise on our advantages as market leader to the full, is on track. Our full-year profit expectations remain unchanged.”
Carpetright opened five new stores opened in the UK during the period, including three concessions, and saw encouraging initial results from its four retail concept stores, where it is trialling anew shop fit and brand identity.
The UK store base reduced by net 22 during the period to 438, resulting in a year-on-year space decline of 4.8%.
