Sponsored by
Dividend axed as Topps Tiles sees sales tumble
The UK's biggest tile and wood floor retailer yesterday said current sales were 18 per cent down as the turmoil in the property market continued to bite.
Shares in Leicester-based Topps Tiles fell 13 per cent after the company scrapped its annual dividend payment and said pre-tax profits for the year to September 27 fell to 27.7m from 37.8m a year earlier.
Chief executive Matt Williams blamed the fall in home sales for the company's recent trading pressures: "Business is tough at the moment. We are a discretionary spend; people don't have to buy tiles."
But he said average spend was 250 and homeowners would do more of their own home improvements as they realised they were unable to sell their properties.
"I think we are still yet to fully go into that phase of the downturn when people really come to terms with that."
Mr Williams said Topps had doubled the size of its value ranges and offered a 30 per cent discount when people bought more than four square metres of tiles, with an extra 10 per cent discount when people bought adhesive and grout.
Topps said like-for-like sales had fallen 18.3 per cent in the first seven weeks of the new financial year, from September 27.
Seymour Pierce said recent sales falls were "eye-catching" and exceeded the broker's forecast of a 7 per cent drop.
Analyst Freddie George added: "There should, however, be no surprises in the statement that the dividend was passed and the net debt remained above 90m."
In order to reduce its 92m net debt, Topps said it had decided not to pay a dividend for the financial year.
The group's revenue in the last financial year was flat at 208.1m, while like-for-like sales were down 5.4 per cent on 2007.
Topps, which grew its UK stores base over the year by 19 outlets to reach a total of 320, said it would not be looking to expand much more in the coming year, but would instead concentrate on existing stores.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
