Carpetright Boosts Profit
LONDON -- Shares in Carpetright shot up more than 2% in trade today following the release of the firm's preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended April 27, 2013.
Europe's leading specialist carpet and floor coverings retailer announced that underlying pre-tax profit advanced 142.5% year on year, from 4 million in 2011/12 to 11.4 million in 2012/13. This was helped by a 2.2% increase in like-for-like revenues in the U.K.
Operations in the rest of Europe didn't fare so well, with revenue in local currency declining 10.4% and like-for-like sales down by 11%. However, that didn't stop the group from generating cash and reducing its net debt, the latter down 46.6% to 10.2 million pounds.
Chief executive Darren Shapland commented:
The Group grew underlying profits and generated cash during the year, with an encouraging increase in U.K. retail store like-for-like sales and a significant improvement in gross profit percentage year-on-year. In the Rest of Europe, trading conditions in the Netherlands remained difficult while progress has been made in the recovery plan for the Republic of Ireland.
The success of our self-help activities in improving Group performance during the period was particularly encouraging, demonstrating that a focus on factors within our control can yield good results.
While we expect trading conditions to remain challenging, we are confident that the combination of these self-help initiatives will underpin the positive momentum of the Group.
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