New strategy begins to pay off for Carpetright

The turnaround strategy of Carpetright boss Wilf Walsh, who has been at the helm of the company since May 2014, is paying off.

The floorings specialist recorded a 4% increase in like-for-like sales for the 25 weeks to October 24 and said its plan to refresh the brand is going as it should.

With in a year at Carpetright, Walsh addressed the retailer’s infamously poor customer service and sought to take the brand upmarket, introducing four concept stores to the mix with a new, fresher logo.

“I am pleased to report that the Group continued its positive trading performance during the period,” said Walsh. “In the UK we delivered encouraging sales growth against strong comparatives in the prior year and continue to gain market share. Sales in the Rest of Europe have also continued to recover.

Our aim to revitalise the Carpetright brand is on track. We have made further progress with the strategy of rationalising and repositioning our store portfolio and are encouraged by the early performance of our four trial concept stores in the UK. We will update shareholders on progress of our strategic initiatives at the time of the interim results in December.

Trading in the year to date remains in line with management’s expectations and our view for the year as a whole remains Carpetright opened five stores in the period and closed 27, bringing its total number of UK stores to 438.

Source: Veebs Sabharwal - Retail Gazette.

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