Carpetright chairman and chief executive Lord Harris of Peckham said: “If there are any smaller carpets retailers out there, we will look at their business. We will look at any opportunities because now is the time to buy when things are tough.”
Carpetright has bought two UK competitors in the past year; Storeys and Carpetworld.
Harris said trading is “without a doubt” more difficult than at the beginning of the year and will get worse. “In order to grow this year, we will be focusing on taking market share,” he said.
Carpetright’s like-for-like store sales, excluding Storeys and Carpetworld, fell 1.8 per cent for the 26 weeks to April 26.
Carpetright opened its first store in Germany at the beginning of April in a joint venture with regional German chain TTL and will open a further four this year. It also has stores in the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland.
“When you have a 30 per cent market share in the UK and only a small percentage share in the rest of Europe, it’s not hard to see where the majority of the growth will come this year,” said Harris.
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