Cheshire, England, July 6, 2006—Ceramic and wood flooring specialist Topps Tiles said yesterday that sales were improving despite the negative impact of the football World Cup.
The company said like-for-like sales were flat over the last 13 weeks having fallen 4% in the first half of its financial ye a r.
The improved trading in the third quarter came despite a slowdown in spending across the UK because of the World Cup and meant like-for-like sales were down 2.7% for the year to date.
Topps also unveiled plans to return pounds 122.4m to shareholders which helped send its shares up 5%.
