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Luxury furniture retailer Walker Greenbank said market conditions the UK continued to be challenging, though the sales trend had improved in the current financial year. 'Overall, trading at the company in the year to date is in line with the board's expectations,' chairman Dianne Thompson said in speech notes for the company's AGM.
'In the UK, which represents approximately 52% of brand sales, market conditions continue to be challenging although the sales trend has improved since the start of the financial year.'
'Brand sales in international markets, excluding the US, in the first 18 weeks of the financial year are ahead on a like-for-like basis at constant currency compared with the same time last year.'
In the US, however, Thompson said brand sales had recorded a small decline, owing to the deterioration in Clarke & Clarke's US sales.
'Plans are well underway to return Clarke & Clarke to growth in the second half of the current financial year,' she said.
Licensing income in the year to date was in line with the board's expectations
'We are focusing on revenue-generating and cost-saving initiatives to mitigate current trading conditions and are on track to deliver anticipated savings in the current financial year and beyond,' Thompson said.