Carpetright issues yet another profit alert as bed sales flop
CARPETRIGHT yesterday issued another profit warning, this time blaming disappointing bed sales and poor trading in Europe.
After a warning in January, analysts had trimmed profit forecasts for Britain’s biggest floorings retailer to about £6m – but the firm admitted this has dipped again.
“The level of bed sales in the UK has been below forecast and along with the weakening sales in Europe, will result in the full year underlying pre-tax profit being in the range of £3-4m,” said the firm, which has issued a string of profit alerts over the last year.
Carpetright said sales at British stores open over a year rose 1.4 per cent in the 11 weeks to 14 April, the bulk of its fiscal fourth quarter. That compared with a third quarter fall of 0.5 per cent.
However, like-for-like sales in Carpetright’s Europe division fell 4.4 per cent, having been up 0.3 per cent in the previous quarter.
“The fragile confidence of our customers continues to produce a weak and volatile floor coverings market,” said Carpetright’s founder and chief executive Philip Harris.