By Neil Maidment
LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest tile specialistTopps Tiles may target the commercial market once it hasreached its goal of taking a third of domestic sales across thecountry, it said on Tuesday.
Helped by new openings and improved stores and ranges, ToppsTiles has grown its share of the domestic market for sixstraight years to 30.3 percent at the end of 2014 and is aimingto take a third in total, possibly this year.
"Once we have achieved our goal we could look at the broadertile market," Topps Tiles Chief Executive Matthew Williams said.
Britain's commercial tile market, which serves contractors,housebuilders and industrial sites, is roughly the same sizeagain as the domestic section, but makes up a very small part ofTopps Tiles' 195 million pounds ($304 million) in annual sales.
The firm said on Tuesday adjusted pretax profit for the sixmonths to March 28 rose 14 percent to 9.1 million pounds, asexpected, on revenue up 6.4 percent to 104 million pounds.
Aided by improving housing transactions and a growing 'do itfor me' trend of customers hiring professional tile fitters forprojects, sales at stores open over a year grew 5.3 percent,with momentum continuing in the first six weeks of its thirdquarter.
To expand its presence, particularly in London, Topps Tilesis trialling boutique stores that can fit into smaller highstreet locations. The group will have 12-13 such stores open bythe year end and sees potential for 60-70 longer term.
Its expansion is in contrast to big store closures takingplace at large DIY chains Homebase and B&Q.
($1 = 0.6411 pounds) (Editing by Mark Potter)