Tapi has suffered widening full-year losses as it pressed ahead with its aggressive store expansion plan.

The floorings specialist, which is run by Martin Harris – the son of Carpetright founder Lord Harris – said pre-tax losses increased to £10.9m in the year to December 30, 2017.

It ended the previous year £10.2m in the red.

According to documents filed at Companies House, Tapi’s sales almost doubled to £56.9m last year, from £30.3m in 2016.

Tapi ended the year with 97 stores, compared to 67 at the end of 2016.

The retailer plans to be operating 111 shops by the end of the current calendar year, but said its store rollout was now “coming to an end”.

Tapi’s rapid expansion has piled pressure on rival Carpetright, which launched a CVA earlier this year in order to slash its rental liabilities and streamline its store portfolio.

Carpetright is in the process of shutting 92 of its 418 stores and has cut rents at another 113 sites.

Martin Harris opened the first Tapi store in May 2015 after leaving Carpetright, where he had worked for 23 years, and originally targeted 200 stores by 2018.

Tapi said it “fully expected” the 2017 losses and pledged it would become profitable “once the business is established”.

Topics