Carpetright plans more Sleepright concessions but can’t prevent sales falling

3rd February | flooring | Flooring chain Carpetright says it wants to open a dozen Sleepright stores in the final quarter of its financial year. Lord Harris, the group’s chairman and chief executive, said he was pleased with how Sleepright had fared since it was acquired by the Carpetright group in December, but warned that current trading conditions were the ‘most difficult at any time in my working life.’

Carpetright returned a 2.9% fall in like for like sales in the five weeks to 31st January (excluding Sleepright), although this was an improvement on the two months prior to Christmas. In the 13 weeks to 31st January, Carpetright like for like sales in the UK and Ireland (again excluding Sleepright) slumped 15.9%.