Topps Tiles wipes the floor

FEW retailers are looking forward to the Easter Bank Holiday more than Topps Tiles, the biggest tile and woodflooring specialist.

It was recently voted Company of the Year in a poll sponsored by accountant Price-waterhouse-Coopers, and according to analysts, sales are growing at an astonishing 30% a year, prompting them to raise profit forecasts for the year to September from £22 million to £29 million.

Topps' shares have quadrupled in two years and the company, which floated on the stock market in 1997, is now worth £335 million.

It is riding high on the back of the growing popularity for tiles as customers refurbish and expand their homes, installing bigger bathrooms and kitchens.

Nick Ounstead, chief executive of Topps Tiles, says: 'The areas you can tile have expanded. More people have a second bathroom, shower or conservatory, or underfloor heating. People are spending more on their homes. There's also been a bit of a switch from soft flooring to ceramic tiles.'

It is a shift that has been driven by popular DIY television programmes such as Changing Rooms and publicity given by celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, who used Topps to tile her former house in Alderley Edge - down the road from the company's headquarters in Handforth, Cheshire.

'It's a simple business,' adds Ounstead. 'We are a bit like Majestic Wine in that we both have warehouse-style trading stores. When you go into one of ours, there's lots of stock.'