LONDON (ShareCast) - Carpet distributor Headlam accompanied half-year figures showing a 10 per cent drop in profits with news that Chairman Graham Waldron was retiring after 22 years as a director.

Waldron will be succeeded by Dick Peters who has been Non-Executive Director for seven and a half years.

The management change came as the company reported half year-profits fell to £9.1m from £10.1m last time after UK underlying revenue fell 0.8% and continental European revenues dropped 5.2%.

But it has kept its dividend unchanged at 4.65p and said subject to a reasonable performance in the second half it was confident the full-year payout would not be less than that of 2012.

Headlam reported seeing some signs of improvement in August in the UK after flat sales in July but Chief Executive Tony Brewer played down the significance of the upturn. He said: “It is a further illustration of the variable trading pattern experience during the eight months of the year so far.”

Waldron, who is stepping down immediately, said: “The underlying fragility in the group’s markets combined with the lack of visibility on forward revenue streams is undermining the board’s ability to provide guidance on second half trading.”

Shares in Headlam had fallen 3.1% to 370p at 08:32 on Friday.

TB

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