Pending Investor Meeting: Trading Update

D.F.S. Furniture Company PLC 13 January 2000 DFS FURNITURE COMPANY plc RE PENDING INVESTOR MEETING: TRADING UPDATE DFS Furniture Company plc plans to hold an investor meeting, prior to the end of its half year to 29 January 2000, at which current trading will be discussed. In the light of this, the Board has issued the following statement: 'Since the trading update issued at the Annual General Meeting on 6 December 1999, DFS Furniture Company has continued to enjoy strong growth in both delivered sales and order intake. Like-for-like delivered sales in the first 23 weeks of the current year are up 17.5%. Order intake has consistently exceeded the company's expectations and it has enjoyed strong demand during the 1999/2000 sale period, despite more testing prior year comparatives. Performance continues to benefit from the adoption of an exceptionally competitive pricing strategy. Margins have improved as a result of increased volumes, more cost-effective advertising and the further development of in-house manufacturing capacity and productivity. All three DFS factories have benefited from the introduction of new designs, and are exceeding their production targets. As a result of these positive trends, the company expects to report a substantial improvement in its interim results, which will be announced in April. It also anticipates that its results for the year as a whole will exceed current market expectations.' Enquiries: DFS Furniture Company plc Hudson Sandler Graham Kirkham, Executive Chairman Keith Hann / Justin Strong Jon Massey, Chief Operating Officer Tel: 020 7796 4133 Ian Bowness, Finance Director Tel: 01302 330365