Topps expects flat sales but improved like-for-likes

Topps Tiles, the retailer whose headoffice and administrative functions are based at Handforth in Cheshire, announced that trading in the 53 weeks to October 2 the firm’s sales were 2% higher than in the corresponding period a year earlier at £182.4m.

The company, which will announce its preliminary results in November, said that when results are restated to account for the same period its sales will be broadly flat compared with the prior year but like-for-like sales increased by 1.7%, compared with a decline of 13.1% in 2009.

It currently trades from 313 stores, having opened 12 and relocated eight in its current financial year.

Topps Tiles added that it expects adjusted pre-tax profits to be within the range of analysts’ estimates, which currently range between £14.5m and £17.1m.