Ulster Carpets enjoyed record sales in the past year but profitability slipped.
The group – which includes Ulster Carpets, Alternative Flooring, Roger Oates and Dan Floor – saw turnover climb by 3% to £91.7m, but EBITDA fell by 4% to £9.2m.
A pre-tax loss of £3.33m became a profit of £2.83m in the year to 31 March 2025. Higher labour, material and energy costs contributed to a 2.3ppts reduction in gross profit to 38.7%.
‘In terms of the core woven business, the change in fiscal direction following the new presidency has put pressure on the US marketplace. Despite this, the stand-out market was the US, where record sales were achieved. Time will tell how this pans out, but the UK does have advantages compared with other non-US suppliers. UK and European markets were at best satisfactory reflecting the challenges that all western European economies are currently facing. Marine volumes were good but margins in this area are very tight and so the continuing aim is to focus on the premium part of this sector,’ says John Wilson, Ulster chairman.
‘The new weaving shed at our headquarters in Portadown is now complete and we have eight high-speed looms to complement the existing looms. Annual weaving capacity is now in the region of 1.9million equivalent sqm and we are aiming for a minimum capacity of 2million equivalent sqm from this resource. This will be achieved by optimising productivity on the new looms while continuing a programme of refurbishing the older looms. Productivity gains are essential as UK fiscal policies are extremely challenging for those, such as the Ulster Group, whose main focus is on UK based production. Despite these challenges we have ongoing plans for further significant investment at our Portadown headquarters.
‘Dan-floor had another exceptionally good year which was very much driven by Dan-Floor UK. However, its European retail and contract markets are softening and so focus needs to be on responding appropriately to the challenges that we expect in 2025-2026. Roger Oates performance was again down on the previous year. Key challenges here are to maintain sales volumes in the face of increasing supplier costs and to focus keenly on our overhead cost trends. Alternative Flooring was in a period of rebuilding and as intimated last year, will take time to realise its potential. There is now a definite uptick in performance and, in line with our aspirations for this acquisition, we expect 2025-2026 to be a strong year for this company.
‘As in previous years, we remain in a strong financial situation so continue to look for further opportunities to employ our accrued capital in a profitable manner.
‘In summary, sales for the group are strong but we face challenging fiscal policies in both the US and the UK. Productivity gains are essential to counteract these. Dan-Floor continues to perform well but there are challenges in their non-UK based markets that will need to be addressed. Roger Oates needs to respond to challenges of maintaining sales volumes while facing up to pressure on margin and an upward trend in overhead. Alternative Flooring looks like it is now heading towards a new phase of growth which is important for the group. In all parts of the group, we need continued focus on growth and to adapt to the continually changing world.’
During the year ordinary dividends were declared of £3.05 (2024: £2.97) per share, resulting in a total dividend paid of £1,017,612 (2024: £992,431). Following the year end, a final dividend of £1.76 per share was declared on 13-August 2025 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in a total final dividend of £588,107. On 5 November 2025, an interim dividend of £0.85 per share was also declared, resulting in total interim dividends of £284,029.
