VCP Victoria Plc

RNS Number:6353G
Victoria PLC
27 January 2003




Issued by Citigate Dewe Rogerson Ltd, Birmingham
Date: Monday 27th January 2003

                                                               Immediate Release


                                Victoria P.L.C.
                                 Trading Update

The Interim Statement announced on 19th November 2002, indicated that overall,
the  Directors were optimistic that the Group should continue to trade well
through the second half and were cautiously optimistic that the results for the
full year ending 29 March 2003 would show a return to the levels of
profitability previously achieved.

The Board is therefore pleased to report that in the October to December quarter
of the current financial year, trading has been ahead of expectations.

In the UK, Victoria Carpets performed very strongly throughout the normally
buoyant Autumn selling season, resulting in sales being some 30% higher than the
comparable period.

The Group's Australian business has also continued to trade strongly, with sales
36% ahead of the comparable quarter.

The acquisitions of Munster Carpets in Ireland and Pacific Textiles in
Australia, which were completed in October and November last year, are
integrating well into the Group.  Both businesses are performing well and
operational synergies already beginning to come through are further contributing
to the Group's profitability.

Export markets have seen some signs of recovery and a higher number of orders
have been secured.  However, with the on-going global economic and political
uncertainty it is too early to predict whether this will be sustainable.

The strong Autumn trading has carried over into 2003 in the UK, whilst in
Australia sales have remained on target during this traditionally quieter summer
holiday period.


The installation of the new backing line at Kidderminster is near completion and
is expected to be commissioned next month and become fully operational by the
end of March.


Accordingly, prospects look very encouraging across the Group and therefore the
Directors believe that the full year results for the year ending March 2003 will
be significantly higher than those achieved in 2002 and ahead of the current
consensus market forecasts.




Enquiries:


Bob Gilbert, Non-Executive Chairman
Alan Bullock, Group Managing Director                       Fiona Tooley

Mark Lee, Group Finance Director                            Katie Dale
Victoria PLC                                                Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tel: 01562 749300                                           Tel: 0121 455 8370

Mobile: 07785 325701 (AB)                                   Mobile: 07785 703523 (FT)




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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