Walker Greenbank, the luxury interior furnishings group, has continued its progress after reporting an increase in profits from £1.4m to £3.1m in its preliminary results for the 12-month period ended January 31, 2008.
Chief executive John Sachs said the 'transformational year' allowed the group to focus on its priorities, and invest in the wallpaper brands: "The year to January 2008 was a year in which we built on the recovery of 2007 by making excellent progress by exploiting organic growth and other opportunities as a result of the strength of the group's brand assets," he said.

The company said brand sales grew 17% in UK retail markets and the same figure in Europe and the rest of the world.

Additional sales revenue came from the small US business, which grew 2%, the fledgling contracts business, which grew 58%, and manufacturing units growing third-party revenues by 8%.

Brands

The brands – Harlequin, Sanderson, and Zoffany – grew revenue and profits after continued heavy investment in new product and marketing.

Harlequin: 16% growth in sales driven by woven product, up 24%, and wallpaper, up 6%.

Zoffany: 24% growth in sales year on year primarily via wallpaper and woven fabric, both up 27%, with printed fabric up 1%.

Arthur Sanderson & Sons: 22% growth in sales across all product categories led by woven fabric, up 49%, wallpaper up 17% and printed fabric up 9%.

The Anstey wallpaper factory in Loughborough saw a threefold rise in profits as it benefited from the growing popularity of wallpaper.

Ian Sachs and chairman Ian Kirkham said that after 'considerable progress' in 2007 they are confident of a 'very satisfactory outcome' for this year.

People

On September 19, 2007 Terry Stannard joined the board as a non-executive director. He is experienced in marketing and international business.

On February 12, 2008, Charles Gray, a non-executive director, retired from the board.