Floorcoverings giant brushes bond debacle under the carpet

Floorcoverings group Victoria has rolled out a solid set of results, just weeks after its share price plummeted over a botched plan to refinance.

Its chairman Geoff Wilding acknowledged the way the group sought to raise £400m in a bond issue was “not the board’s finest hour”. Its shares dropped 35% in two days at the end of October, and at last night’s close of 474p had only recovered half of that fall.

But at the time, Wilding had stressed the underlying performance of the business, which has been borne out by today’s figures. Its underlying pre-tax profit in the 26 weeks to September 30 jumped 82% to £28.2m, while acquisitions contributed to a 44% increase in sales, to £273.4m.

Wilding said: “Victoria continued to make strong operational progress during the period. We again delivered against our strategy designed to grow market share, improve cash generation, and increase earnings per share, via both acquisition and organically.”

One-off exceptional costs, including more than £10m relating to the acquisition of Ceramica Saloni and other M&A activity, did reduce its statutory pre-tax profits to £4.6m.

The Kidderminster-based group believes it is well-positioned for any downturn. While Wilding said he is “somewhat reluctant to add to the almost limitless verbiage on Brexit”, he does not expect much impact on the business although there are plans to carry a “greater quantity of certain raw materials than usual” for a period of time.

Wilding added: “It is important to remember, together we own a very robust, well-managed, and growing business with over 3,000 employees who manufacture and sell some of the finest flooring in the world.

“The events of the last couple of months have not distracted management from delivering and for that reason I am highly confident of Victoria’s continued long-term success.”