Retailer United Carpets Group has warned its annual profit will miss expectations, after failing to see a trading uplift from the outcome of the general election.
It expected to generate around £150,000-£200,000 of pretax profit for the year ending 31 March, below current market expectations of £500,000.
The company said: “Disappointingly, there does not appear to have been any uplift in trading following the decisive result in the general election and the retail environment has continued to be challenging.”
Like-for-like sales in the eight weeks following its half-year results update fell by 5.7% despite the launch of a new instalment payment channel. The latter had incurred “higher than anticipated” start-up and servicing costs.
United Carpets added: “Current market conditions are very competitive as all retailers compete for every sale leading to aggressive discounting and we have acted to provide increased support for our franchise network.”
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