Carpetright (LON:CPR) , the FTSE 250 specialist carpet and floor coverings retailer, issued a revised profit warning this morning, sending shares in the company down by 37.5p to 634p. Underlying pre-tax profits for the year to April 30, 2011 are now set to come in broadly in line with the £17.2m of profits it made in the 2009 full year. In February Carpetright said it was expecting to beat that 2009 figure but miss the £28.2m profit level that it reached in 2010. The company blamed the situation on difficult trading conditions in the UK and Ireland, with fragile consumer confidence producing a weak floor coverings market.

In February’s third quarter update, Carpetright said that group sales had declined by 6.4% and that its store base had decreased by eight to 694 stores at the period end. UK and Republic of Ireland sales declined by 5.0%, with like-for-like sales down 7.7%. The company had been hoping that January trading would be boosted by the impact of snow in the comparative period. However, while year-on-year sales did rise after Christmas, they were no at the expected level. This set the scene for a cautious outlook for the remainder of the financial year.

Broker FinnCap said it was expecting to downgrade its full year pre-tax profits forecasts for Carpetright by around 15% and retained a “sell” recommendation.

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