LONDON (Alliance News) - Retailer Bonmarche Holdings shares fell on Friday morning, after the company said it expects full-year pretax profit to come in at the lower end of guidance.
Shares in Bonmarche were down 11% at 168.00 pence on Friday morning.
In a statement, Bonmarche said it expects pretax profit in the year ended March 26 at the lower end of the GBP10.5 million to GBP12.0 million range it guided in December.
The company expects trading conditions to remain challenging, Chief Executive Beth Butterwick said in a statement, prompting a "cautious" outlook for its new financial year.
"Post-Christmas, trading conditions have continued to be quite challenging, with the exception of January where we saw a higher than average demand for autumn/winter sale stock. Although helpful in clearing these ranges, the continued colder weather has been unhelpful in kick-starting real demand for spring products," Butterwick said.
"Overall, consumer confidence does not appear buoyant and, given that context, I believe that the provisional results represent a creditable performance. Our financial position continues to remain healthy and our final autumn/winter terminal stock position has ended better than expected, and lower than last year," Butterwick said.
Total sales were up 5.2% in the 13 weeks to March 26, Bonmarche said, and up 0.5% for stores on a like-for-like basis and online together. Total sales rose 5.3% in the full year ended March 26, with sales up 1.0% for stores on a like-for-like basis and online together.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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