Kesa unveiled a lacklustre set of first-half results after the electricals group’s performance was dragged down by its UK and Spanish operations.

The group reported a 71 per cent fall in retail profit to£13 million in the six months to October 31. It halved its dividend and cautioned that trading would remain challenging.

Chief executive Jean-Noël Labroue, who is to retire in January, said: “We do not expect consumer confidence to improve for the rest of the financial year.”

In the UK, Comet notched up a loss of£8.1 million compared with a£10.6 profit in the same period last year. Like-for-likes fell 11.6 per cent and total sales fell 7.9 per cent to£723.3 million. Gross margin was down 100 basis points. Kesa indicated that cost savings will benefit second-half profits.

Kesa does not see “any improvement in the short term” in Spain after its subsidiary Menaje del Hogar made a loss of 11 million (£10 million).
Pali analyst Nick Bubb said the first-half figures were “awful” and forecast a full-year profit before tax of “no more than£75 million” – a reduction from£110 million.