(Alliance News) - DFS Furniture PLC on Tuesday said it has had an "encouraging" start to the second half of its current financial year following a sharp profit drop in the first half.
The retailer of living room and upholstered furniture reported pretax profit of GBP15.9 million for the 26 weeks ended December 29, the company's financial first half, compared to GBP35.3 million a year earlier, as revenue declined by 5.7% to GBP488.0 million from GBP517.6 million.
DFS Furniture maintained its interim payout at 3.7 pence a share.
The company said its first-half performance was hurt by challenging market conditions, with consumer confidence and political uncertainty reducing retail footfall.
Online growth continued, however, with gross sales up 4.5% to GBP117 million from GBP112 million.
"Despite the challenging retail environment, and excluding some isolated systems disruption in Sofa Workshop, our performance over the first half has been as expected, given the exceptional prior year comparative driven by latent demand," explained Chief Executive Tim Stacey.
Looking ahead, he added: "Trading in the second half for the group has also started satisfactorily with performance in the DFS brand particularly encouraging, with order intake growth year-on-year and good gross margins."
DFS Furniture shares were trading 3.6% lower in London on Tuesday at 201.50p each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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