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LONDON (Alliance News) - Carpetright PLC Tuesday reported higher UK sales in recent weeks, driven by what it called "effective" promotions, and it managed to stem the rate of sales decline in its operations in the rest of Europe, meaning its full-year profit expectations are unchanged.

In a statement, the carpets and floorings retailer said UK sales rose 5.7% in the 11 weeks to October 11, while sales from stores open more than a year rose 7.0%. It kept its full-year guidance for a decline in gross profit percentage of between 50 and 100 points in its UK operations.

It opened six new UK stores in the 11 week period, its fiscal second quarter, and closed 10, giving a net reduction of four. It now trades from 463 stores, of which 290 have been modernised.

In the rest of Europe - it has operations in the Netherlands, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland - sales were down 0.8% in local currency terms, while like-for-like sales in local currency terms were down 0.5%. Taking into account the strength of sterling, total sales from these countries fell 7.9%, it said.

It kept its guidance for a 250 basis point increase in gross profit percentage in its Europe operations.

"I am pleased to report that the group's trading performance improved year-on-year during the second quarter. In the UK our continued focus on effective promotional activity has delivered solid sales growth throughout the period, with like-for-like growth broadly in line with the level experienced in the first quarter," Chief Executive Wilf Walsh said in a statement.

"Trading across our Rest of Europe business has continued to improve with a further reduction in the rate of sales decline, arresting the very significant fall seen over the last 30 months, particularly in our Netherlands business. We expect this, along with an improvement in gross profit margin and a reduction in operating costs, will result in our businesses in the Netherlands and Belgium to be profitable for the first half of the financial year compared to the trading loss experienced in the prior year," he added.

Carpetright expects to report its full-year results on December 9.

By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1

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