Topps Tiles toughs it out
UK tile market forecast to increase 26% by 2010
Barry Bester, co-founder and Chairman said ‘At the full year results announced on 29 November 2005, we reported that for the first 7 weeks of trading in the new financial period total sales increased 1.2% and like for like sales were down 4.7% reflecting the tough UK trading environment. I am pleased to report that, despite a persistently tough retail market and extremely demanding comparables of over 15%, trading in the first 13 weeks of our new financial period has remained stable with overall turnover upby 1% and like-for-like sales down 4.4%, however gross margins are continuing to
improve. We are now expecting to see some signs of improvement in like-for-like sales as the very high comparatives we experienced throughout the first quarter of the last financial period become less challenging from January 2006 onwards.
Our controlled store roll out programme continues and we have a stated target of
24 net new stores in this financial period. So far we have opened 5 stores in the period and have a strong pipeline of sites currently in development. Topps has consolidated its market leading position and with the UK tile market forecast to increase 26% by 2010, we remain confident that our proven business
model and focussed management team, with the shared objective of driving the business forward, will continue to deliver sustainable growth for our shareholders.’
