UK arm hit by sluggish domestic conditions
Carpetright this morning announced a 4.4 per cent increase in full-year profits to£67 million, but there was no further news on chairman Lord Harris' attempts to take the business private.

Total sales rose 5.4 per cent to just under£476 million, but the UK business was hit by the weakness of the home market in the second half.

UK and Ireland like-for-likes fell 1.4 per cent over the year. The decline was steeper in the second half, with a fall of 3.6 per cent. The company blamed the January interest rate hike for the fall.

Harris described the results as 'solid' and said 'I am now in my 50th year of selling carpets and remain as enthusiastic as ever'.

Carpetright's store count increased 16 per cent over the year and 38 concession units were opened, 21 of them in House of Fraser.

Carpetright was guarded about its performance, saying 'all new stores take time to mature and we expect to see stronger sales from them in the year ahead'.

The international business continued to grow, with sales up 7.6 per cent to£57.8 million and operating profit up 8.3 per cent to£3.9 million.

Six stores were opened in Ireland, taking the total number of stores to 25 in that country. Carpetright revealed that the Irish stores produced the best like-for-like growth over the year.