Carpetright shares crash 41.9% amid profit warning

Debenhams And Carpetright Report Challenging Trading

Debenhams And Carpetright Report Challenging Trading

It blamed the profit alert on a "sharp deterioration" in United Kingdom trade, with sales in the key post-Christmas period "significantly behind expectations".

With official data confirming 2017 as the weakest year for United Kingdom retail since 2013, Carpetright's profit alert will stoke fears Britons have further reined-in spending on big ticket items at the start of 2018.

Specialist carpet retailer Carpetright has issued another profit warning prompting shares to fall by 41.9%, at the time of writing.

Carpetright, seen as a lead indicator on the health of the United Kingdom consumer economy, today warned on its full-year profits.

Debenhams and Mothercare have also issued profit warnings.

Official figures published on Friday showed British shop sales slid by much more than expected in December.

Wilf Walsh, chief executive, said that there had been a "significant deterioration"...

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The company's shares lost more than 45 per cent of their value in early deals, sliding 74½p to 90p as traders reacted badly to the severe profits alert.

Like-for-like sales - in stores open long enough for comparable data to be available - fell 3.6% in the 11 weeks to 13 January and the company reported a decline of 40-80 basis points in gross profit margin.

The company said trading the important post-Christmas period had been significantly behind expectations with group sales down 2.3%.

"Footfall is down, which is likely to have an impact on the wider big ticket market, most notably upholstery", said Peel Hunt analysts, who cut their stock rating to "hold" from "buy".

However, its performance in overseas markets the Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium, was positive, with like-for-like sales growing 4.3 per cent over the period.

Carpetright said it was now forecasting underlying pre-tax profits of between £2m-£6m for the year to 28 April. Analysts' consensus forecast had been for 14.1 million pounds, compared with the 14.4 million pounds delivered in 2016-17.

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