ScS disclosed an interim trading loss of£8.8 million for the six months to January 26, compared with a profit of£3.3 million the previous year.
Turnover plummeted 13 per cent to£91.8 million. Comparable store sales fell 15 per cent for the period and have since continued at that level.
ScS chairman Mike Browne was gloomy about prospects. He said: “We are under no illusions about the challenging trading conditions prevailing in our market. Recognising our high operational gearing, we have to manage the business on the basis that we are unlikely to see any upturn in economic conditions for some time.”
Browne said the benefits of a cost review should be evident in the second half, but admitted: “While this action addresses the variable cost base, it is the fixed cost nature of the business that should be noted.”
He said that Easter trading had been “well ahead” of last year, but that this was a weak comparative period and insisted that he remained “confident of a profitable second half”.
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