United Carpets rolls out 13% profit increase

Carpet and flooring retailer United Carpets rolled out a 13% increase in annual pre-tax profit as total like for like sales fell by 1.4% in the first 15 weeks of the new financial year. For the year ended 31 March 2011 revenue was unchanged at £27.5m while pre-tax profit rose to £1.243m from £1.098m in 2010.Chief executive Paul Eyre commented, "In the context of the current market environment, this was a resilient performance slightly ahead of market expectations."Network sales grew by 2.4% to £71.6m while earnings per share increased by 16.7% to 0.98p. Store numbers increased by 4 to 86."The group saw a small increase in network sales and subsequent increase in profitability. Coupled with a healthy balance sheet, the business is well positioned to continue to develop its network of franchised stores and increase its share of the flooring and beds market, alongside any improvement in trading conditions," the group said. The final dividend has been maintained at 0.5p per share.---CJ