Carpetright issues profit warning

The carpet retailer said while group profits for the year to May 1 will be considerably ahead of last year, “they are likely to fall below current market expectations”.

Like-for-likes in the seven weeks to March 20 were 1.4% in the UK and Ireland, and in the rest of Europe, like-for-likes in constant currency were 1.6%.

Lord Harris, chairman and chief executive, said: “As we reported in our last trading statement, poor weather in the UK after Christmas severely affected the final weeks trading in our third quarter. 

“Nevertheless, based on previous experience we expected to recover some of this lost trade in the remaining weeks of the year.  It is now clear that recent like for like sales growth, while remaining positive, has not returned to pre-Christmas levels and the recovery from weak trading in January has not been as significant as expected.”

He added: “Our businesses in The Netherlands and Belgium continue to trade well.”

Carpetright will make its usual year end pre-close update on trading on Wednesday, April 28.

Oriel Securities analyst Ramona Tipnis said the broker scaled back forecasts at the beginning of February when it also went to a Reduce recommendation. She said on its forecasts “there was no room for disappointment and the shares have disappointed”. She reiterates Reduce.