Victoria exceeds expectations in all geographies

Flooring manufacturer Victoria said on Thursday that trading has "exceeded management expectations" in every geography following the re-start of operations.

Victoria stated that following "a dramatic decline in revenues" in March and April due to the forced closure of the firm's manufacturing operations, with the exception of Australia, sales had begun to recover in mid-May with the easing of restrictions in certain countries.

The AIM-listed group highlighted that the benefit of its geographic diversification in both manufacturing and customer locations was "readily apparent", as different countries ended their lockdowns at varying times.

Victoria said that after "methodically" re-opening its manufacturing and distribution operations in all geographies, sales had "steadily increased" over the last three weeks and were now approximately 85% of management's pre-Covid-19 budget.

"Further recovery is expected as orders begin to flow to Victoria from UK retailers, who were the last to start trading as they were only allowed to re-open last week," said Victoria.

However, the company stated that it was still "premature" to provide meaningful earnings guidance for 2021, even though it was "considerably more optimistic" about future trading than it had been in March.

As of 0910 BST, Victoria shares were up 8.18% at 238.00p.