Carpetright sees yearly profits floored

● Pre-tax profit drops 93 per cent but firm expects to grow market share

to the new financial year, despite “continued economic uncertainty”.

UK like-for-like sales grew by 2 per cent for the seven weeks to 17 June.

Walsh added: “Our strategy is on track and the positive response we have received from these initiatives has encouraged us to press ahead with plans to complete the refurbishment of the UK store estate by the end of 2018 and to extend the programme in the rest of Europe.

“We have made an encouraging start to the new financial year, underpinned by the improving performance of our refurbished UK estate.”

Wilson at ETX Capital pointed out that like-for-like sales at stores that have been refurbished were up 6.8 per cent on average, “a very encouraging sign that the programme is working”. He added that Carpetright “had already posted a sharp uptick in Q3 sales to reverse a decline in the first half. But a slow Q4 meant it had to warn profits would be at the lower end of forecasts. Overall a decent enough second half has slightly offset a weak first half ”.

He cautioned: “Any turnaround has to be viewed (against) a very tough market that might get tougher as inflation climbs and wages fail to keep pace.”