Topps battles through the snow

TOPPS Tiles managed to maintain its recent growth spurt in the first quarter of its new financial year despite the cold snap keeping customers away in early December.

In a trading statement ahead of its annual general meeting later today, chairman Barry Bester said that the business achieved sales growth of 1.8% in the first 13 weeks of the year, with like-for-like sales increasing by 2.2%.

“We experienced some disruption during December from the extreme weather conditions and I feel the business has responded well during a testing period,” said Bester. “Against this context, I am particularly satisfied with the performance over the period as a whole.”

The company, whose headoffice is based at Handforth in Cheshire, currently operates from 312 stores but said that it is planning a “prudent expansion” of its estate and plans to open ten new stores by the end of September.