Carpetright lays down positive start

Carpet retailer Carpetright today said it had improved market share during an encouraging start to its financial year.

The Essex-based group, which has 364 stores and 38 concessions in the UK and Ireland, said good growth for all its floor covering products led to a 3.7% increase in like-for-like sales in the first 14 weeks.

Ahead of its annual general meeting, the company told shareholders that trading had been in line with expectations with total sales up by 9.2% in the period to August 7. It estimates its share of the UK’s carpet market at 26%.

The group’s European Benelux business, which it bought in October 2002, continued to make good progress, with same-store sales in local currency increasing by 6.7%.

It said it continued to make significant gains in market share in both Belgium and Holland.

Carpetright will next update the market in October, just before the end of the first half of its financial year.