Flooring manufacturer and distributor Victoria has revealed it sold more than 200 million square metres of flooring in its last financial year, more than 29,500 football fields, for the first time in its history.

According to its latest trading update for the year ended 1 April 2023, total sales rose 43.3% to £1.4bn from £1bn in 2022. Underlying EBITDA resulted at £196m, up 20.4% from £162.8m.

Victoria said it saw softer demand in FY2023 due to near-term macroeconomic conditions but fundamental sectoral drivers sustained long-term, steady growth in a global flooring market believed to be worth $200bn and growth over the last 25 years of c. 3% per annum.

Four major acquisition integration projects are well ahead of schedule and now in their final stages of completion. The outcome is anticipated to conservatively deliver a £20+ million per annum increase in EBITDA.

Geoff Wilding, Executive Chairman commented: “With all major integration projects in their final stages, we expect FY2024 to be a year of two halves, with stronger H2 earnings as the benefits of the reorganisation are experienced. Completion of the projects is also expected to result in Victoria’s free cash flow increasing sharply from H2 FY2024, with management focussed on returning to our long-run average cash conversion of EBITDA to Net Free Cash Flow of 55%. Further ahead, FY2025 will see the full benefit of the successful acquisitions’ integration with an expected uplift in margins driving an additional increase in earnings and free cash flow.

“Victoria benefits greatly from being in a long-duration, steady growth industry that will drive compounding organic growth for decades. After making two-dozen careful acquisitions over the last 10 years we have now achieved a scale that, once we have completed the current integration projects, will result in higher productivity, more efficient logistics, wider distribution, and lower input costs than almost all our competitors. Coupling this scale advantage with the underlying sectoral tailwinds will, the Board believes, deliver outsized returns for our shareholders for a very long time.”