A combination of building society windfalls and post-electionfeel-good factorhelped push up sales at Allied Carpets by 14% since June, and increase profits for the fifth year, it saidtoday.
Announcing pre-tax profits of £16.7m, up from £14.6m,chairmanJulian Lee said the company was now seeing a “marked return of consumerconfidence”.
During the 12 months to the end of June, Allied saw its sales rise11% to£255.7m from £230.1m, helped by a record number of newstoreopenings.
It said 36 opened during the year at a cost of £5.9m, and thegroup nowhas 238 trading.
Allied, which was created from the remnants of Lowndes Queensway andAsda’scarpet business in 1993, said it was difficult to separate windfallfromfeel-good spending. “It’s a combination of windfall gains and some catch-up spending fromtheMarch-April-May quarter,” said managing director Ray Nethercott.
The company said the durability of the current boom would betested in theautumn, traditionally the peak time of year for carpet sales.
Allied added that its HomeVision computer system, which allowscustomers to seewhat a carpet looks like rolled out on a screen, would be introducedto all itsstores by then.
PA News 29/07/97
