UNITED CARPETS>>>THE LATEST INFORMATION

LONDON (AFX) - Shares in United Carpets PLC made modest gains in early
trade, benefiting from positive interim results, leading Seymour Pierce to
reiterate its 'outperform' recommendation, dealers said.
At 9.02 am shares in the firm were up 0-3/4 pence at 12-1/4.
The retail carpet and floor covering specialist, said like for like sales
since the end of September are up 13.0 pct, further improving from a strong
first half.
In the six months to Sept 30, the group's like for like sales were up 11.6
pct year-on-year and total turnover had increased by 17.4 pct to 8.97 mln stg
from 7.64 mln.
Pretax profit grew to 406,000 stg from 380,000 stg.
Seymour Pierce said this morning that the strategy of 'putting its own house
in order', as opposed to expanding too rapidly, has begun to pay off.
The emphasis has been on improving the performance of existing stores rather
than opening new ones.
The broker added that in order to improve performance generally the group
has appointed Ray Ticker as retail operations director. His role is to focus on
improving the entire spectrum of retail - from visual merchandising to customer
service.
The broker highlighted that the interims prove a solid performance, with the
like-for-like increases much better then market leader Carpetright PLC.
On the downside, the broker pointed out that United disappointed with bed
sales - believing this area is not performing to its full potential.
The company said that a 0.8 pct like-for-like increase in bed sales was
unsatisfactory.
Meanwhile, Carpetright shares traded lower by 4 pence at 1,323.
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