Furniture orders fall as Britain's weather hots up

Britain's spell of tropical weather started to give furniture and furnishings retailers the sweats this week, with ScS Upholstery delivering a profit warning.

ScS said record-breaking hot weather 'had an inevitable effect on trading' and, for the first 45 weeks of the financial year, overall like-for-like orders were down 2 per cent.

However, the underlying sales, which factor out store openings, suggest growth of 2 per cent.

Sector peer Carpetright reported flat like-for-like sales at its AGM.

Chairman and chief executive Lord Harris said sales grew just 0.7 per cent in the 14 weeks to August 9.

However, he said the retailer continued to grow market share 'despite a difficult trading environment'.