Tiles chairman predicts fresh growth

Jan 9 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

THE chairman of Cheshire tile and flooring retailer Topps Tiles says he expects the business to continue its growth despite the “challenging” retail environment.

Barry Bester, a founder director of Topps Tiles in 1984, told its AGM yesterday that revenue in the first 13 weeks of its new financial year was up by 6.9% on the same period last year.

Shares rose by as much as 9% yesterday after Mr Bester said Topps’ like-for-like revenues were up 0.8% despite a “persistently tough” retail market.

In the UK, where Topps has 302 stores, overall revenues rose 6.6% while like-for-like revenues were up 0.7%. The company plans to open 20 stores this financial year.

The company’s Dutch business saw overall revenues grow by 16.5%, with like-for-like revenue up 2.6%. Topps has 20 stores in the Netherlands and plans to open five more.

Topps’ current UK performance compares to 5% growth the year before, while in Novem-ber the company said it could not under-estimate the potential impact of the credit crunch on consumers.

Mr Bester said: “Topps has conso-lidated its market leading position, and has transformed its business in the 10 years since listing on the London Stock Exchange, consistently delivering excellent shareholder returns.

“There continues to be an underlying growth trend in the retail tile market, with forecasts indicating it will increase in volume by over 15% by 2011.”

Topps’ share price has fallen to less than half the year-high of 309.75p achieved last April amid wider fears over the economy, but yesterday’s update cheered analysts who said the stock now looked attractive.