Shares fall 10% as company forecasts weak year-on-year growth
Companies: Topps Tiles Plc
The UK's largest tile specialist, Topps Tiles, released a pre-close trading update this morning saying it expected full-year revenues to be around £215m (up 4.2% on the previous period), and pre-tax profits to be around £22m, in-line with expectations.
The company said its decision to exit the low-margin wood flooring market during the quarter had reduced LFL sales by around 1.5%, but management assured investors the impact was short-term:
"This impact will reduce over Q1 FY2017 as sales from our new range of larger format tiles build."
Broker Liberum said the pre-close update reassured full-year outlook, whilst CEO Matthew Williams, said Topps Tiles had grown sales to a new record through its proven strategy of "out specialising the specialists":
"Whilst market conditions weakened over the final quarter as a result of reduced levels of consumer confidence we remain confident in our ability to outperform the market and deliver our goal of further profitable sales growth."
Topps Tiles share price opened down nearly 6% in early trading, after initially falling 10%.
