The chief executive of Carpetright is confident about the floor-covering retailer grabbing a bigger slice of the beds market after a sales jump.
Carpetright now sells beds in 276 of its 480 UK stores, and posted a 5.1% uplift in sales over the last six months after increasing its offer, which includes Silentnight and Sleepeezee beds.
Chief executive Darren Shapland said: “We think we can build a much bigger business.” He is “very confident” of taking share in the beds market, which is led by Dreams but is also populated by Argos, Ikea, John Lewis, Bensons for Beds and hordes of small independents.
Carpetright posted a pre-tax loss of £7.9 million over the half-year to October 27, dragged down primarily by charges from exiting unprofitable stores.
Stripping out one-off property costs, the carpet market leader sharply increased profits to £4.5 million. Carpetright has been buffetted by the slowdown in the housing market, and underlying UK sales rose 0.7%.
