Home furnishings see Laura Ashley's profits flower

Increased demand for home furnishing at Laura Ashley has seen the company report full-year profits of £3.1m (€4.6m) in 2003 compared to a £4.9m (€7.2m) loss the previous year.

Like-for-like sales of home furnishings were up by 9% on the year, but clothing sales fell 1.9%.

Laura Ashley launched a restructuring programme last year, which has seen it revamp stores and sell off its loss-making European operations.