Profits and revenues continue to grow at Victoria Carpets as it ramps up UK manufacturing

By Nicky Godding

25 April 2023

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Despite challenging economic conditions, Victoria PLC, theKidderminster-headquartered international designers, is set to deliver its tenth consecutive year of revenue and underlying operating profit growth. Total volume sold will exceed 200 million square metres (more than 29,500 football fields) for the first time in the company's history with revenues for the year ended 1 April 2023 of more than £1.45 billion, alongside continued growth in underlying operating cashflow.

Last April Victoria acquired the rugs and UK carpet divisions of Balta Group, together with the internationally-known brand, "Balta", establishing Victoria as Europe's largest carpet and rug manufacturer.

This is good news for the UK as Victoria is planning to relocate Balta's carpet manufacturing from Belgium to the Group's more modern and more productive UK factories in Wales and Yorkshire. 80 per cent of Balta's carpet is sold in the UK, Europe's largest carpet market, and this move will enable Balta to sell the same quantity, but with lower production and transport costs alongside improved customer service from shorter delivery times.

Executive Chairman Geoff Wilding said: "We are laser-focussed on the reorganisation of Balta and the integration of other recent acquisitions. Completion of these projects is expected to deliver a significant uplift in productivity and cash flow, even during a period of economic uncertainty, which underpins our confidence in outlook for FY24 earnings growth and deleveraging."

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.