Birmingham,UK:Britain's largest flooring wholesale group,Headlam,has reported that while its sales have continued to outperform the market,its margins are experiencing a decline.
Headlam operates around 50 independently managed flooring wholesale businesses across the UK and Europe.
The group said that underlying UK sales had risen 4.9 percent over the first four months of 2012.The company is also thought to have benefited from the entry of upholstery chain ScS into the mainstream carpets sector.Including new business dealings,the total increase in sales for Headlam amounted to 7.5 percent.
In a city trading update on May 18,2012,the distributor said that total sales across the group were up by five percent for the first four months of 2012.
Headlam's pan-European businesses saw sales decline 3.9 percent on a constant currency basis.However,the rising value of the pound sterling against the Euro meant the real value of this decline was 6.4 percent.
Headlam said it expected the effect of increased competition in the UK to cause its gross margins to decline by about 50 basis points for the first half of 2012 in comparison to the same period last year.
