LONDON (Alliance News) - John Lewis of Hungerford PLC on Tuesday swung to a pretax loss for its 10-month financial year due to a difficult trading environment.
For the 10 months to the end of June, the company recorded a pretax loss of GBP373,838 from profit of GBP107,205 in 12-month period in the previous year, on revenue that fell to GBP6.7 million from GBP8.3 million. On a like-for-like basis, sales for the 10-month period increased 10% to GBP6.7 million.
The kitchen manufacturer and retailer changed its year end to June 30 from August 31.
Alongside the adverse effect of changing its year-end date, there was also extremely challenging trading conditions in the retail sector, with low consumer confidence, price increase resistances, cost pressures and business rates.
For the first 18 weeks of its current financial year, despatched sales and forward orders dropped to GBP3.7 million from GBP4.8 million for the same period the year before, as poor winter weather caused delays to building projects, leading to capacity constraints in the building sector.
"It has undoubtedly been a period of great change within both the economic conditions in which we find ourselves and the home improvement market itself, which has seen both new entrants to the sector and many existing operators experiencing reduced volumes. We remain confident that our proposition is unique and beautiful, which captures the hearts and minds of our discerning customers," said Chief Executive Officer Kiran Nonnan.
Shares in John Lewis of Hungerford were untraded on Tuesday, last quoted at 0.80 pence.