Flooring company Carpetright has seen pre-tax losses widen to £7.2 million, compared to a £5.1m in a “challenging” year, accompanied by a 2.2% fall in sales across the group.

The group said that the poor results were due to "significant sales volatility" in the UK and "extremely difficult trading conditions" in the Netherlands.

Commenting on the results Lord Harris, executive chairman, said: "While indicators point to an overall improvement in UK economic performance over the past twelve months, it has been a challenging time for the Group with our markets remaining highly competitive and deal-driven.

"The performance of the business in the Rest of Europe is principally a reflection of the continued difficult trading in the Netherlands.  Whilst this business reported a loss for the year, it remained cash generative.

"Against this backdrop, we continue to take steps to develop the business. While we anticipate trading conditions will remain challenging, we expect these actions will underpin an improvement in Group performance in the new financial year."