Consumer spending bellwether Carpetright warns on profits, unsettles retail sector

831AM GMT twenty-three Mar 2010

Carpetright

Lord Harris of Peckham, the authority and arch executive, pronounced in a traffic refurbish "It is right away transparent that new like-for-like sales growth, whilst superfluous positive, has not returned to pre-Christmas levels and the liberation from diseased traffic in Jan has not been as poignant as expected."

The headlines pushed Carpetright"s shares down 10pc in early trading, with view attack alternative retailers. Argos and Homebase owners Home Retail Group and B&Q owners Kingfisher were the heading fallers in the FTSE 100, both down scarcely 2pc.

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The tradesman had hoped to redeem lost traffic in the superfluous weeks of the year after frozen continue in Britain after Yuletide exceedingly strike third-quarter trading.

Like-for-like sales - sales at stores open for some-more than a year - in the UK and Ireland rose 1.4pc in the 7 weeks to Mar 20. This compares with a climb of 2.3pc in the thirteen weeks to Jan 30.

Lord Harris pronounced Carpetright"s businesses in The Netherlands and Belgium one after another to traffic well, with like-for-like sales up 1.6pc in the 7 week period.