Carpetright like-for-like sales drop 1.9 per cent in the first half as Netherlands remains tough
Retailer Carpetright has seen like-for-like sales drop by 1.9 per cent in the first half of the year, with total sales in the UK down by 3.3 per cent (release).
Like-for-like sales in the Rest of Europe (Netherlands, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland) decreased by 10.6%. Total sales declined by 10.9%. After the impact of currency movements this translates to a 4.4% decrease.
Darren Shapland, chief executive, said:
We saw solid growth in UK sales during May and June, reflecting the continued progress of our self-help activities. During July this positive trend was reversed by the significantly warmer weather, with the decline being compounded by a period of strong, wet weather assisted, comparatives in 2012 during which retail like-for-like grew by 5.3%. Excluding the expected decrease in sales from the wholesale business during the 12 week period, our core retail business would have reported a like-for-like sales decline of 1.0%.
Trading in our Rest of Europe business continues to be dominated by the extremely difficult economic conditions in the Netherlands.