Topps Tiles pins blame on political uncertainty as Q1 sales fall

Tile specialist Topps Tiles reported a decline in first-quarter revenue on Wednesday, pinning the blame on political and economic uncertainty in the run-up to the general election.

In the 13 weeks to 28 December 2019, like-for-like retail revenues fell 5.4%. It had already said in November that retail LFL across the first eight weeks of the quarter fell 7.2%.

For the final five weeks of the quarter the performance improved, however, with LFL revenue down a more modest 1.4%.

Chief executive officer Rob Parker said: "Our first quarter performance reflects the full impact of the heightened political and economic uncertainty evident in the run up to December's General Election, which we first noted in our 2019 full year results announcement.

"Trading conditions remained challenging throughout the period and, against this backdrop, we ensured that we continued to offer our customers excellent value for money. As expected, the retail like-for-like sales decline began to return to its pre-election trend towards the end of the quarter."

At 1005 GMT, the shares were up 0.8% at 76.40p.