AN "olympian" effort has seen a Kidderminster carpet firm boost profits by more than 50 per cent.

Despite a slowdown in the housing market and the Olympics cutting Australian sales Victoria PLC recorded pre-tax profits of £774,000 in the six months to September - an increase of 54 per cent. Turnover at the Worcester Road firm rose by 9 per cent to £18.5 million while underlying earnings per share jumped 64 per cent to 7.36p in the same period.

Chairman Bob Gilbert put the company's success down to the launch of its Tudor Twist range, voted Best Tufted Product 2000.

Also the sale of its Green Street site had boosted profits to £2.16 million.

He said: "The benefits of consolidation of carpet manufacturing onto one site have started to come through.

"These, together with increased turnover, have produced a result in UK manufacturing somewhat better than market conditions might have suggested. As a result overall profits from the UK operations are substantially higher than in the first half of last year."

But he revealed he was worried about the immediate future. He said: "The level of housing activity appears to have fallen back and there is a fair degree of uncertainty about the economy both in the UK and overseas.

"Overall, we see an uncertain six months ahead within the principal markets of the UK and Australia." He said the company would concentrate on targeting independent retailers, which accounted for 60 per cent of its sales.

He added the strength of sterling against the euro and strong price competition had left export business "challenging".

"Against this backdrop we did manage to increase our export sales turnover significantly - although margins were not as good as we might have hoped for."

The company had to weather a sales slump in September while the Olympics were on.