The City welcomed Topps Tiles’ “solid” update this week, as it revealed like-for-likes will have risen about 1.8% in the first half.

Peel Hunt analyst John Stevenson said: “Topps is on track to deliver a solid result.”

He said Topps Tiles’ new warehouse, due to open in May, would help “drive direct sourcing levels and increase stock handling efficiencies. We gain confidence from the outlook for margin delivery”.

In its pre-close statement, the tiling retailer said total revenue would be in the region of £89m, a fall of 2.5% compared with the comparable 27-week period last year. On a same reporting week basis, however, this represents a rise of 1.5%.

Second quarter like-for-likes are expected to be up 1.4%, with revenue growth of the same amount.

The retailer has secured a new committed £75m revolving credit facility through to May 2015.

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