27 October 2015

Carpetright plc

Trading Update

Carpetright plc, Europe's leading specialist carpet and floor coverings retailer, today announces an update on trading for the 25 weeks ended 24 October 2015.

Highlights

·    UK

·    Rest of Europe

·    The Group's full year profit expectations are unchanged. ^{(note 4)}

Wilf Walsh, Chief Executive, said:

"I am pleased to report that the Group continued its positive trading performance during the period.  In the UK we delivered encouraging sales growth against strong comparatives in the prior year and continue to gain market share.  Sales in the Rest of Europe have also continued to recover.

"Our aim to revitalise the Carpetright brand is on track.  We have made further progress with the strategy of rationalising and repositioning our store portfolio and are encouraged by the early performance of our four trial concept stores in the UK.  We will update shareholders on progress of our strategic initiatives at the time of the interim results in December.

"Trading in the year to date remains in line with management's expectations and our view for the year as a whole remains unchanged."

The Group will report its interim results for the first half of the current financial year on 15 December 2015.

For further enquiries please contact:

Carpetright plc

Wilf Walsh, Chief Executive

Neil Page, Group Finance Director

Tel: 01708 802000

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Kevin Smith / Nick Hayns

Tel: 020 7638 9571

A copy of this trading statement will be available on our website www.carpetright.plc.uk today from 7.00am.

Notes

1.     Sales represents amounts payable by customers for goods and services before deducting VAT and other charges.

2.     Like-for-like sales calculated as this year's sales compared to last year's sales for all stores that are at least 12 months old at the beginning of our financial year.  Stores closed during the year are excluded from both years.  No account is taken of changes to store size or introduction of third party concessions. 

3.     For the UK and Republic of Ireland the current financial year (2016) is a 52 week year, ending 30 April 2016.  The previous financial year (2015) was a 53 week year, ended 2 May 2015.  In order to provide meaningful year on year trading information, current year financial trading period in this announcement relates to weeks 1 to 25 of 2016, compared to weeks 2 to 26 of 2015.

4.     Current range of market expectations for the year ending 30 April 2016 is for Group underlying profit before tax to be £16.0m to £19.0m.

5.     There have been no significant changes to the Group's financial position during the period.

Notes to Editors

Carpetright plc is Europe's leading specialist floor coverings and beds retailer.  Since the first store was opened in 1988 the business has developed both organically and through acquisition within the UK and other European countries. The Group is organised into two geographical regions, the UK and the Rest of Europe (comprising The Netherlands, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland).

In the UK, Carpetright is the market leader in floorcoverings where it has increased its market share from 22.7% in 2010 to 25.3% in 2014 and an estimated 25.7% in 2015 (source: Verdict - UK Furniture and Floorcoverings Forecast 2020, published August 2015).

Appendix 1: Group Sales

Appendix 2: Store portfolio