CPR.L Regulatory News (CPR)

Carpetright plc

Interim Management Statement

Carpetright plc, Europe's leading specialist carpet and floor coverings retailer, today announces its trading update for the 12 weeks ended 20 July 2013.

Highlights

·; UK

o Like-for-like sales (note 2) in the UK were down 1.9%. Total sales in the UK decreased by 3.3%.

o Improvement in gross profit percentage of 80bps in the period.

o Store base decreased by five during the period to 473, of which 202 have now been modernised.

·; Rest of Europe

o In local currency terms, like-for-like sales in the Rest of Europe (Netherlands, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland) decreased by 10.6%. Total sales declined by 10.9%. After the impact of currency movements this translates to a 4.4% decrease.

o Improvement in gross profit percentage of 100bps in the period.

o Key driver of performance continues to be weakness in the Netherlands economy.

Darren Shapland, Chief Executive, said:

"We saw solid growth in UK sales during May and June, reflecting the continued progress of our self-help activities. During July this positive trend was reversed by the significantly warmer weather, with the decline being compounded by a period of strong, wet weather assisted, comparatives in 2012 during which retail like-for-like grew by 5.3%. Excluding the expected decrease in sales from the wholesale business during the 12 week period, our core retail business would have reported a like-for-like sales decline of 1.0%.

"Trading in our Rest of Europe business continues to be dominated by the extremely difficult economic conditions in the Netherlands.

"Notwithstanding the tough trading conditions we believe we continue to grow market share in all of our markets and continue to see significant further potential in our planned self-help initiatives."

The Group will report its pre-close trading update for the first half of its financial year on 15 October 2013.

Analyst conference call

Darren Shapland will host a conference call for analysts at 08:30 BST today.

The dial in number is +44 (0) 20 3003 2666 with the passcode 3640848.

Thereafter, for further enquiries please contact:

Carpetright plc

Darren Shapland, Chief Executive

Neil Page, Group Finance Director

Tel: 01708 802000

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Kevin Smith / Lindsay Noton

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. All sales figures are quoted after deducting VAT.

2. Like-for-like sales calculated as this year's net sales compared to last year's net 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. Sales from insurance and house building contracts are supplied through the stores and included in their figures. 

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

Appendix 1: Group Sales

Appendix 2: Store portfolio