Carpetright reiterates full-year profit guidance

Carpetright reiterated its full-year profit guidance on Tuesday as it reported growth in like-for-like UK sales in a trading update for the 12 weeks ended 23 April.

LFL sales were up 0.7% in the three months and 2.9% for the financial year to date.

In local currency terms, LFL sales in the Rest of Europe rose 1.9% in the 12-week period and 4.6% over the last 12 months.

Chief executive Wilf Walsh said: “The UK business continued to make progress in the final quarter, against strong comparatives in the prior year and in a market which was increasingly competitive.

Against this background, we have delivered two year compound like-for-like sales growth in excess of 10% and, having rebalanced our promotional activity, are pleased to report revised gross margin guidance for the full year of a decline of around 80-100 basis points, an improvement on the previous range.”

The previous range was set at between 100 and 150 basis points.

During the period, Carpetright closed two stores, giving a total of 35 store closures and nine opening in the year, leaving 434 trading locations.

The company said its full-year underlying pre-tax profit expectations were unchanged at £17.3m.

“Our plan to revitalise the Carpetright brand remains on track. Results from the trial of our new retail concept have been encouraging with the trial stores outperforming comparable stores in the estate,” said Walsh.

The group is due to report preliminary results for the year ending 30 April on Tuesday 28 June.

At 0926 BST, Carpetright shares were down 13% to 334p.