Victoria Pens Deal with John Lewis Partnership

Kidderminster, England, June 22, 2007—Carpet maker Victoria saw its shares rise yesterday after it posted a significant increase in profits and announced a key partnership deal with John Lewis, according to the Yorkshire Post.

The group, which employs more than 100 people at Westwood Yarns in Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, said that despite "challenging economic conditions" the group had performed well.

It announced that it had signed an agreement with The John Lewis Partnership - its biggest customer - to warehouse, cut and deliver carpets to its UK stores.

John Lewis recently announced that it would be opening a store in Leeds in 2012 as part of a nationwide expansion which will see it open a further six stores.

Victoria, whose carpets include the Axminster brand, also said that Westwood Yarns had enjoyed a busy year and it was installing new machinery at the site to increase production by around 10 per cent.

The specialist machinery will enable the factory to manufacture plied yarns for the first time - premium value yarns which the company currently buys in rather than produces.

Alan Bullock, group managing director, said:"Despite the fact that the economic and trading conditions in our key markets have remained tough and challenging the group has made good progress on all fronts.

"In the UK and Ireland we have produced a very strong performance when viewed against the state of the trade in general whilst in Australia we managed to win market share once again against a difficult market and during a period of consolidation of the industry's two largest players. Our associate in Canada has had another very successful year." The company posted pre-tax profits of GBP2.76m - a rise of 37.3 per cent on last year's figures. Share dividends increased from 23.20p to 28.92p representing an 8 per cent increase on last year. Carpet sales rose by around 7 per cent from GBP21.6m to 23.2m, while export sales increased from GBP3.7m to GBP4.4m.

Mr Bullock added: "Our strategic approach is focused on growth, taking advantage of opportunities to exploit and build on our leading market position.

"Although we are unlikely to see any real improvement in general overall market conditions in the year ahead, we believe that Victoria has the structure, products and people in place to achieve the group's objectives for the year and in particular to deliver an improved performance again within this new financial year." Victoria Carpets was founded in 1895 in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy. The company now operates across the UK, Australia and Canada.

It purchased Westwood Yarns in 1989 to produce yarns for their tufted carpet production. Westwoods are now one of Europe's most modern 'dry woollen' spinning mills and supply much of the high-tech yarn used by Victoria.