Retail sales at luxury giant Burberry have slowed in the second quarter and full-year profits are now expected to come in at the lower end of expectations

Burberry released an unscheduled trading update, revealing that in the 10 weeks to September 8 like-for-likes were flat against comparable period last year and that there had been a “deceleration in recent weeks”. Retail sales growth overall was 6% at constant exchange rates.

Burberry expects adjusted profit before tax for the year to March 31 2013 to be at the lower end of market expectations.

Chief executive Angela Ahrendts said: “As we stated in July, the external environment is becoming more challenging. In this context, second quarter retail sales growth has slowed against historically high comparatives.

“Given this background, we are tightly managing discretionary costs and taking appropriate actions to protect short term profitability, while continuing to execute on our proven five key strategies.”

Burberry had been a consistently strong performer during the downturn.