Topps Tiles Regulatory News (TPT)

25 March 2014

Topps Tiles Plc

Pre-close period Trading Update

Topps Tiles Plc (the "Group"), the UK's largest tile specialist, reports a trading update for the 26 week period ending 29 March 2014, prior to entering its close period. The Board will announce interim results for the period on 20 May 2014.

Total revenues for the 26 week period will be circa £97.5 million (2013: £87.4 million), an 11.6% increase year on year. Like-for-like revenues for the 26 week period will have increased by circa 10%.

Underlying profit before tax for the first half is expected to be circa £8.0m (2013: £4.7m).

At the time of the Q1 Trading Update in early January, we indicated that the Company's performance during the second quarter would be key to our expectations for the year. The business has continued to perform well and we move into the second half with a confident view of the outlook.

As a consequence of the stronger financial performance there will also be an increase in the operating cost base for the year. This is a function of the increased activity levels and also reflects higher incentive payments throughout the business. Taking these factors into account, we are very confident of achieving a full year profit in line with the current market consensus1.

Matthew Williams, Chief Executive Officer, said: "With the strong start we made to the year being sustained into the second quarter, we now expect a significantly improved profit performance year on year. We are continuing to focus on our strategy of taking further market share and remain optimistic about prospects for the business."

The Group is currently trading from a total of 330 stores.

There have been no significant or unexpected changes in the financial position of the Group since the publication of the Annual Financial Report for the 52 weeks ended 28 September 2013.

1 The current range of analysts' estimates for adjusted pre-tax profit for the year ended 27 September 2014 is £15.4m to £19.3m, with a consensus of £16.4m.

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