United Carpets Group plc, the third largest chain of specialist retail carpet and floor covering stores in the UK, today announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2018.
Key points
- Like for like sales* increased by 3.2%
- Revenue increased by 2.5% to £21.72m (2017: £21.19m)
- Profit before tax was £1.52m (2017: £1.53m)
- Earnings per share were 1.57p (2017: 1.58p)
- Store numbers increased from 57 to 58
- Interim dividend of 0.135p per share (2017: 0.13p) paid 19 January 2018
- Recommending an increased final dividend of 0.285p per share (2017: 0.275p per share) payable on 11 October 2018
- After having paid another special dividend of 1.0p per share (£0.81m) in May 2017, net funds were £2.64m (2017: £2.60m)
- Like for like sales* since the period end are down 1.6%
*Like for like sales are defined in the Financial Review
Paul Eyre, Chief Executive, said: “In the context of today’s retail market, achieving a 3.2% like for like sales increase was a pleasing performance. It reflects strong product ranges at attractive price points and a high level of personal commitment from our franchisees to their individual stores, displaying substantial resilience when market conditions become more challenging. While the adverse impact of the recent exceptional weather and the World Cup is unsurprising, the resilience of the franchise network represents a key point of differentiation for United Carpets and one that continues to be important in the current market environment.”
united-carpets