Carpetright today reported a decline in first quarter like-for-like sales as the warm weather hit its performance in the UK. Retail Week rounds up the City’s reaction.

“Although the trim to numbers this morning is a shade disappointing, a recovery in the core UK business at Carpetright remains on track in our view, backed by self-help measures putting the consumer at the heart of the trading philosophy. In the medium term, any improvements in housing data should also be beneficial, but is not factored into the company’s planning at this stage.” – Alistair Davies, Oriel Securities

“Under strengthened management Carpetright is deploying self-help in a number of key areas, including overdue improvements to the store proposition and customer service which are key to widening appeal and growing sales. Product initiatives should also derive benefits as they increase authority in flooring and beds, albeit low awareness of the bed offer could limit transfer gains from Dreams’ closures. We believe the business is therefore improving at a time when flooring (housing) market conditions are improving. growth has been helped by service changes, development of beds, extension of the laminate and smooth flooring range, and the ongoing store refurbishment programme.

“In addition the market conditions have begun to stabilise and should soon improve on the back of increased housing transactions. Prior to the arrival of the heatwave and despite tougher comps like-for-like growth had been running at c2-3% which confirms the benefits of all of these factors. The heatwave cost around £3.5m sales though or around £1.8m at the bottom line. Some of this should be recovered in the second quarter (possibly up to half).” - Matthew McEachran, N1 Singer

“Carpetright’s UK like-for-like sales fell 1.9% over first quarter, reflecting steady progress in May and June (c+2.5% growth), offset by double-digit declines over the last three weeks as the heat wave took hold. While some sales will be deferred into the second quarter, we trim our full-year 2014 expecations estimate by £500,000 to be prudent. The sales shortfall has been partly mitigated by a strong margin performance, +80basis points compared with the first quarter.” – John Stevenson, Peel Hunt

“With everybody outside in the garden, buying a new carpet has not been top of mind for the consumer in recent weeks and though the first quarter sales update from Carpetright covers the 12 weeks to 20 July, July has done a lot of damage to the first quarter outcome in the UK. May and June were “solid”, but overall like-for-like sales are down by a disappointing 1.9%, whilst trading remains poor in the Netherlands (like-for-like sales down by 10.6% in Europe). – Nick Bubb, independent