Flooring specialist posts 4.9% sales increase but has not seen the recovery it hoped for in 2010.
A trading update issued today revealed that Carpetright's sales in the UK and ROI were up 6.5% for the seven weeks to March 20, 2010 - 1.4% on a like-for-like basis.

Group sales were up 4.9% for the same period. However, the carpet and floor coverings retailer explained that the pace of recovery it had seen towards the end of 2009 was not sustained in 2010.

Last year Carpetright reported its strongest half year sales since 2004 – up 9.6% to £258m for the six months ended October 2009.

The retailer added that, while group profits for the year ended May 1, 2010 are expected to be "considerably ahead" of last year, they are still likely to fall below current market expectations.

Carpetright chairman and chief executive Lord Harris of Peckham said: "As we reported in our last trading statement, poor weather in the UK after Christmas severely affected the final weeks trading of our third quarter. Nevertheless, based on previous experience we expected to recover some of this lost trade in the remaining weeks of the year. It is now clear that recent like-for-like sales growth, while remaining positive, has not returned to pre-Christmas levels and the recovery from weak trading in January has not been as significant as expected."

Carpetright will issue a year-end and pre-close trading update on April 28.