Annual profits and sales fall for Victoria
A West Midlands carpets and flooring group saw its profits fall in the year to the end of March.
Victoria's revenue was down from £1.46 billion in 2022-2023 to £1.25bn.
The underlying earnings before tax fell from £196 million to £160.7m for Victoria, which has its head office at Worcester and one of its carpets factories in Kidderminster.
The group employs 7,300 staff across more than 30 global sites.
The group saw macro-economic factors continuing to impact consumer spend on flooring during the year, but it outperformed the wider flooring market in several of its key geographies.
Geoff Wilding, the executive chairman, said: “Whilst we remain cautious about near-term trading conditions and cannot predict precisely when demand will normalise, we are continually moving closer to that point.
“As interest rates fall, housing transactions and deferred residential renovation, improvement and repair purchases will rebound, driving flooring demand.
“We expect the market outperformance and productivity improvements secured over the last 24 months to then be rapidly reflected in Victoria’s earnings and cash flow. Until this occurs, we remain focussed on minimising controllable costs and driving market share gains.”
Production capacity has been maintained alongside the 16 per cent reduction in employees – 1,170 people – from the integration and reorganisation of the group's business units, ensuring normalised demand can be met when it returns.
