Topps Tiles has announced the purchase of the Pilkington's Matrix ceramic wall tile brand, including all rights and remaining stock.
The move brings the brand back to market after Pilkington's entered administration and ceased trading in June last year. The remaining stocks will be sold for as long as they last, but Topps will then be manufacturing the most popular colours in the range.

Commenting on the acquisition Topps Tile chief exec Matt Williams said: "Our recent purchase of this popular trade brand will allow us to develop our relationships with
the trade and commercial sector. The Matrix collection has proved frustrating for the trade to source and we are delighted to now bring the offerings back exclusively to the market."

The news comes on the same day that Topps Tiles reported its expected half-year results to April 2 2011 showing a like-for-like (lfl) sales increase of 1.8% for the 26-week period.

The finalised preliminary results will be announced on June 1. However, the company said it expected half-year total revenues in the region of £89.2m, down about 2.5% on 2010 (£91.4m). However, when restated on a same reporting week basis, total revenues will be about 1.5% ahead of 2010, more in line with the lfl performance.

Q2 saw an increase of circa 1.4% both in total and lfl terms.

The group has also restated its intention to continue with an expansion policy, aiming to open a further seven stores in the second half, taking total store numbers to 320. This is likely to be funded by a new £75m revolving credit facility secured following completion of a refinancing of its loan facilities and in place until May 2015