Carpetright shares floored by second profits warning as Xmas sales plunge

It slashed full year profit guidance to £2m-£6m, after warning in December that underlying full year pre-tax profits would be at the lower end of £13.8m-£16.7m

The company said UK trading had been impacted by lower customer footfall, with transaction numbers down significantly year-on-year.

Like-for-like sales fell 3.6% in the 11 weeks to January 13, with a decrease of 1.4% in flooring, and a further material decrease in bed sales.

Core flooring like-for-like sales had declined 7.1% since Christmas, the company said.

Chief executive Wilf Walsh said the firm had "seen a significant deterioration in UK trading during the important post-Christmas trading period".

"While average transaction values were up year on year, the number of customer transactions since Christmas was sharply down, which we believe is indicative of reduced consumer confidence," he said.

"Our response to the threat of new competition continues to be effective, with those stores that have traded against new local competition for more than 12 months performing ahead of the rest of our estate.

"Sales in our Rest of Europe business have also been volatile but we continue to deliver like-for-like sales growth, primarily reflecting the introduction of lower margin service income.

"Against this background of a further deterioration in market conditions, we remain committed to driving through the improvements that are essential to the long term repositioning of the business."