Huge sales drop in continental Europe
The turnover in its past fiscal year dropped 2.2 % to 447.7 million pounds (or 560 million euro), but the British chain managed to keep the sales drop relatively low in its home market, namely 1.5 %. The rest of Europe (which is Ireland, Netherlands and Belgium for this particular company) experienced a far greater turnover drop, namely 5.4 %.
The like-for-like comparison is even more striking as the British numbers dropped 0.2 % while the rest of Europe dropped 8.6 %.
Carpetright mainly blames the weak Dutch market, where consumers spend a whole lot less on the decoration of their house, which impacts both the company’s turnover and its profit position.
Operating income halved
The entire situation led to the operating income dropping from 9.7 million pounds to 4.6 million pounds (or 5.8 million euro). If one-time costs are added into the calculation, then the 5.1 million pound loss in 2013 grew to 7.2 million pounds now (9 million euro).
“We anticipate trading conditions will remain challenging”, soon-to-be-former chairman Lord Harris said. On 21 July, Wilf Walsh will become his successor after plying his trade at music chain HMV and bookmaker Coral.
