Kleeneze Europe parent struggling
European Home Retail warned that retail arm Kleeneze Europe is struggling as the group posted a pre-tax loss this morning.

Despite a 4 per cent rise in revenue at the arm, trading results for the home shopping group revealed a pre-tax loss of£600,000 for the half year ended October 31.

European Home Shopping chief executive William Rollason said: 'The period has been in line with expectations and represents the first full six months of trading with all of our new acquisitions. We are, however, not immune to the overall economic conditions and November trading results for Kleeneze Europe have seen revenue fall below expectations. As a result, we expect current year profit before taxation and amortisation to be not less than£3.5 million.'

The results were interpreted by retail analyst Nick Bubb as a 'mild profit warning'.

The group still managed to up its dividend to 1.12p as revenue at the group notched up a rise of 28 per cent in turnover to£101.6 million from£79.4 million, reflecting the contribution of the recently acquired internet businesses.

Revenue at the online business for the first six months was£9.4 million, compared with£100,000 the previous year. There was an operating loss of£1.7 million compared with£100,000 last year.