Behar, the Scottish carpet retailer, said life was getting tougher ...

Tag : oriental carpets

House prices peaked in August 2007.
With two months of the current financial year left to run, Bainindicated Behar was pinning its hopes on a good performance in thekey final quarter to make up for a disappointing first 10 months.
Asked whether Behar would be profitable in 2008, he said it was tooearly to make a prediction.
"We are very back-end loaded and lots comes in the run up toChristmas."
Bain said that perfor- mance across the group's stores had beenpatchy, with no apparent regional trends. Headquartered inHillington, Glasgow, Behar has nine stores in Scotland and one inKent in south-east England.
Some stores have done well.
However, Bain said that overall like-for-like sales were down on2007, when newly-filed accounts show the privately-owned firmsuffered a plunge in profits.
"It's not been getting any easier. Business is just difficult,"Bain told The Herald.
Accounts for calendar 2007 filed at Companies House by BeharCarpets Limited show pre-tax profits fell to just £4119, from£1,145,483 in 2006.
Turnover slipped by 21% to £8,575,116.
In their report, the directors wrote: "During the first threequarters of 2007 the company experienced very buoyant trading.However, the downturn in consumer spending during the final quarterof the year made trading within our sector very difficult.
"The directors feel the company has performed as well as possiblein these conditions and is well positioned to benefit from growthin the future as consumer confidence returns."
Bain said Behar had no plans to close any stores. It has not madeany staff redundant in response to the tough trading conditions.
Owned by the Slater family, the business was founded in 1920 byVictor Behar, an expert in carpet restoration, who opened a smallshop in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street selling and repairing Orientalcarpets and rugs.