Topps Tiles, the company that recently saved a huge number of CTD Tiles stores following their administration, has seen a slight downturn in its financial results, blaming a “very challenging” current trading environment.
Group sales for the year were reported as £248M, which is a decline of almost 6% from the company’s record high result of £263M last year. Despite still being a decline, sales specifically for the last quarter were only 4.4% lower, which the company said was a slight improvement over the trends seen across the rest of the year.
Topps Tiles said that these sales exclude the recently acquired revenues from its acquisition of the CTD Tiles stores and branding. Topps said that the competition and markets authority (CMA) has told the retailer that it intends to review the recent acquisition, and that Topps was working closely with the CMA about this process.
Like-for-like sales were also down for the retailer, with Topps Tiles seeing a downturn in numbers of more than 8% in the fourth quarter, and roughly 9% lower year-on-year.
Topps Tiles summarised that “the trading environment remained very challenging across the whole year”. It said that it had seen continued weak demand in the domestic Repair, Maintenance and Improvement (“RMI”) sector, especially for bigger ticket projects. It believes this market in particular has declined by approximately 10-15%.
More encouragingly, Topps says that trade sales have continued to be more resilient than consumer sales. This is a trend that has been reported by national retailers across the board this year, with Wickes recently identifying the same positive trend for the trade market.
“In a year that has proved challenging in many ways, I am pleased by how well our teams have responded to the weaker market, demonstrating both our resilience and our ability to continue to outperform,” said Rob Parker, CEO of Topps Group.
“I am also satisfied that despite these challenges we have been able to continue to deliver against our strategy and take opportunities as they have arisen, supported by our strong balance sheet.
“Looking ahead, macro-economic indicators point to a stronger market in 2025. While the timing and trajectory of the recovery remains hard to predict, we are confident that our clearly articulated and proven strategy will enable the further development of the Group in all market conditions.”
Topps Tiles made headlines recently for its acquisition of 30 CTD Tiles stores in a deal worth £9M. The arrangement included ownership of CTD Tiles, CTD Trade and CTD Architectural Tiles, as well as selected stock and intellectual property. Last month, it was also announced that two other companies had agreed to take ownership of 23 further CTD Tiles stores.