AGM Statement

29 Oct 2007 10:20

United Carpets Group plc29 October 2007 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 is continuing to trade in line withexpectations. This reflects the strategic decision to focus on the maximisationof revenues from existing stores and a policy of steady growth in the number ofour franchisees. The positive steps that were taken last year to improve the existing franchiseebase are now largely complete, with only one franchisee being replaced thisfinancial year. Since our year end, a new franchisee store has opened inNorthenden in addition to two corporate stores in Wetherby and Ilkeston. Currently, there are 61 stores, 13 are corporate stores managed by UnitedCarpets and the remaining 48 are run by franchisees. In the future, we aim tomaintain a core of at least 6 corporate stores and are actively sourcing qualityfranchisees for the remainder. Although the retail environment remains challenging in general, with consumerconfidence impacted by increases in interest rates and the recent volatility inthe financial markets, United Carpets' focus on quality, low cost items hasmeant that this has not had a significant impact and the business overall iscontinuing to perform well. Our core floor coverings division remains theprimary driver of the Group's improved performance supported by our bedsdivision, which we continue to develop through both expansion in range ofproducts available and a more cost efficient delivery service from a centraldepot. From the beginning of September, the Group introduced an in-house cutting anddistribution service which is already beginning to benefit our product offeringand competitiveness whilst also providing opportunities to enhance margin. We have a strong pipeline of new stores and potential franchisees and we expect,in the second half, to open more stores targeting sites across Northern andCentral England. We continue to support the Group's sales performance withco-ordinated television, print and radio advertising campaigns, run throughoutthe year in areas where store numbers have reached a critical mass and furtherstore openings will increase our economies of scale. Initial results from our key trading period (October to December) areencouraging and looking ahead, the Group's longer term prospects remain strongunderpinned by a robust balance sheet with bank balances of £2.7m. We will report our interim results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2007 inDecember 2007.' Enquiries: United Carpets 01709 579450Paul Eyre, Chief ExecutiveIan Bowness, Finance Director Cardew Group 020 7930 0777Tim RobertsonJamie Milton This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange