News: Sound future for United Carpets

Rotherham-based United Carpets, the second largest chain of specialist retail carpet and floor covering stores in the UK, continues to trade in line with market expectations for the full year.

A statement was made at company's the Annual General Meeting last week highlighting that the trading environment during the first 25 weeks of this financial year to September 22 2011 has been challenging and like for like sales were 0.6% lower against the comparable period last year.

With their head office at Bramley, United Carpets has 86 branded stores across Northern and Central England, four more than last year.

With the majority of stores operating under the group's franchise model, the business benefits from the entrepreneurial drive and motivation of the individual store owners which, the company believe, is a critical advantage over more traditional retail networks.

However, the board stated that four of their loss-making franchise stored had been brought back under corporate control.

The board added that sales of flooring were slightly ahead of the comparable period last year and that United carpets was voted the UK's leading Flooring Retailer (3+ stores) at the "Interiors Monthly" 2011 Awards.

For the year ended March 2011, the company saw network sales increase by 2.4% to £71.6m (2010: £69.9m) despite difficult trading conditions. Revenue was level at £27.5m and profit before tax increased by 13.2% to £1.243m (2010: £1.098m).

The statement ended on a positive note: "The Group's long term future remains sound, supported by significant cash balances."

United Carpets website

Images: unitedcarpetsandbeds.com