UCG.L Regulatory News (UCG)

30 Oct 2006 10:00

United Carpets Group plc30 October 2006 United Carpets Group plc ('United Carpets' or 'the Group') AGM Statement 'The following statement was made at the Annual General Meeting of UnitedCarpets held today at 10.00am. "We are pleased to announce that the Group has continued to trade in line withexpectations as indicated in the annual report. This reflects the decision toslow down new store opening, focusing instead on maximising trading revenuesfrom our 59 stores thereby strengthening the foundations of our franchisenetwork. Currently, of the 59 stores, 11 are corporate stores managed by United Carpetsand the remaining 48 are run by franchisees. We aim to further reduce the numberof corporate stores through selecting suitable franchisees to run them. As partof improving the Group's trading performance, we closed 3 stores, introduced 5new franchisees to existing stores and since the half year end we have opened 2new stores. Whilst we consider that the retail environment has improved from last year,market conditions remain challenging. Our core floor coverings business has beenthe primary driver of the Group's improved performance supported by our bedsdivision which makes a smaller but nevertheless important contribution. Wecontinue to support the Group's sales performance with co-ordinated television,print and radio advertising campaigns. These run throughout the year and arecritical to continuing to maintain and build our brand presence in our targetmarkets. In the second half we expect to open more stores targeting sites across Northernand Central England. We have a good pipeline of strong locations in varyingstages of negotiation together with a number of new franchisees waiting to bematched with suitable sites. Looking ahead, the Group's longer term prospects remain strong, underpinned by arobust balance sheet with bank balances of £2.5m. We believe there is furtherscope to improve the organic trading of the business and increase the averagesales per store. The company has also increased its investment in training,customer services and new product lines which together are having a positiveeffect on our trading performance. We will report our interim results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2006 inDecember 2006.' Enquiries: United Carpets 01709 579450 Paul Eyre, Chief Executive Ian Bowness, Finance Director Cardew Group 020 7930 0777 Tim Robertson Will Scott-Gall This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange