London, England, October 3, 2006--Ceramic tile and wood-flooring specialist Topps Tiles said on Tuesday it has seen some improvement in earnings after it expected slightly lower year underlying profit and like-for-like revenues.
"Although the market remains challenging, the company has seen an improvement over the last 5 weeks with overall sales increasing by 9.0 percent and like-for-like sales increasing by 1.9 percent over the same period," the company said in a statement.
It said profit before tax was expected to be in the region of 39.0 million pounds after exceptional costs of approximately 1.1 million pounds in the 52 weeks to end-September, versus 39.2 million the previous year.
Like-for-like sales were expected to be 1.8 percent below the same period last year, with overall sales seen up 4 percent to 180.2 million pounds, it said.
Shares in the company closed at 260-3/4 pence on Monday, valuing it at around 443 million pounds.
