Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - Flooring manufacturer James Halstead PLC on Friday said its trading in the first five months of its financial year has been ahead of the year before, and it is confident of dividend growth.
In his speech at the company's annual general meeting on Friday, Chairman Anthony Wild will say that trading in the five months to date has been "encouraging", exceeding the prior year both in terms of revenue and profit.
"I am confident in the prospects of the company, and more importantly I remain confident of maintaining our impressive record of dividend growth," the chairman's speech reads.
James Halstead recently launched several new flooring ranges and has so far invested GBP2 million into Palettone, its vinyl sheet flooring collection, which Wild said had exceeded expectations and had been installed at the Charite Universitatsmedizin in Berlin, as well as at two locations in Paris.
Shares in James Halstead were down 0.8% at 401.96 pence on Friday.
