Topps Tiles shares slide after cautious consumers hit revenue

Shares in Topps Tiles were floored on Thursday as the business revealed a dip in revenue, despite earlier warnings from the group.

The firm said that revenue was 4% lower in the last three months of the calendar year, saying that customers were tightening their belts. Like-for-like sales were down by 7.1%, the company said.

It comes after years of inflation and increasing interest rates have eaten into the amount of money that homeowners have to splash on doing up their houses.

The company had already flagged that trading during the three months would be hit by what it called “ongoing challenges to discretionary consumer spending”.

But the company’s shareholders were still disheartened by the news, sending shares down by as much as 9% in early trading, although they later recovered around half of the lost ground.

“Like-for-like sales in Topps Tiles were down 7.1% in the first quarter, continuing the trend seen in the first eight weeks, with sales to trade customers proving more resilient than sales to homeowners,” Topps told shareholders on Thursday.

“Trading remains strong in online pure play, with significant year on year sales growth, led by Pro Tiler Tools.

“Our Parkside commercial business is performing in line with our expectations and is profitable in the year to date.”

It said that profits in the current financial year will be “weighted towards the second half,” in part due to higher energy bills in the winter months.

“The group remains well-positioned to respond to market conditions and we expect to have gained further market share in the first quarter, driven by our world-class customer service, market-leading brands and specialist expertise, and supported by our strong balance sheet,” Topps said.

“We remain excited about the opportunities for Topps Group over the medium term.”