United Carpets reports an increase in both revenue and profitability

South Yorkshire-headquartered United Carpets Group plc, has reported an increase in revenue and profitability across the Group for the 6 month period ending 30 September 2015.

Network sales of the Group, including the value of retail sales by franchisees were £27.1m (2014: £25.6m).

The Group also saw revenue increase by 11% to £10.1m, compared with £9.1m at the same period in 2014.

Like for like sales across the whole of the network were up 5%, a significant improvement over like for like performance in previous years, and operating profit increased by 9.8% to £583k (2014: £531k).

In addition, the Group’s pre-tax profit increased to £588k (2013: £534,000), while underlying operating profit saw a 15% rise to £583k (2014: £507,000).

Gross margin was 63.9% compared to 65.3% in the same period in 2014 reflecting an increase in the average number of corporate stores. At the start of the period reported, there were 61 stores of which 47 were franchised and 14 were corporate stores. At the end, there was 62 stores with 48 franchised stores and 14 corporate stores.

During the period, United Carpets only opened 3 new stores, 2 of which were relocations within towns where the Group had existing stores

Cash and cash equivalents in the period were £2.2m at 30 September 2015 (2014: £1.8m).

Paul Eyre, Chief Executive, said: “The period under review has been characterised by improvements to revenue and profitability across the Group. We continue to benefit from a reasonable market environment which has improved the returns we have made from our 61 strong portfolio of stores. With consumer confidence and the housing sector showing signs of a generally improving trend, the Board is confident in the long term prospects for the Group.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →