UCG United Carpets Group Plc

RNS Number:2031L
United Carpets Group plc
30 October 2006



                            United Carpets Group plc
                       ('United Carpets' or 'the Group')

                                 AGM Statement

'The following statement was made at the Annual General Meeting of United
Carpets held today at 10.00am.

"We are pleased to announce that the Group has continued to trade in line with
expectations as indicated in the annual report. This reflects the decision to
slow down new store opening, focusing instead on maximising trading revenues
from our 59 stores thereby strengthening the foundations of our franchise
network.

Currently, of the 59 stores, 11 are corporate stores managed by United Carpets
and the remaining 48 are run by franchisees. We aim to further reduce the number
of corporate stores through selecting suitable franchisees to run them. As part
of improving the Group's trading performance, we closed 3 stores, introduced 5
new franchisees to existing stores and since the half year end we have opened 2
new stores.

Whilst we consider that the retail environment has improved from last year,
market conditions remain challenging. Our core floor coverings business has been
the primary driver of the Group's improved performance supported by our beds
division which makes a smaller but nevertheless important contribution. We
continue to support the Group's sales performance with co-ordinated television,
print and radio advertising campaigns. These run throughout the year and are
critical to continuing to maintain and build our brand presence in our target
markets.

In the second half we expect to open more stores targeting sites across Northern
and Central England. We have a good pipeline of strong locations in varying
stages of negotiation together with a number of new franchisees waiting to be
matched with suitable sites.

Looking ahead, the Group's longer term prospects remain strong, underpinned by a
robust balance sheet with bank balances of #2.5m. We believe there is further
scope to improve the organic trading of the business and increase the average
sales per store. The company has also increased its investment in training,
customer services and new product lines which together are having a positive
effect on our trading performance.

We will report our interim results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2006 in
December 2006.'

Enquiries:

United Carpets                         01709 579450

Paul Eyre, Chief Executive

Ian Bowness, Finance Director


Cardew Group                           020 7930 0777

Tim Robertson

Will Scott-Gall


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END
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