27th Nov 2019 09:59
(Alliance News) - Sofa seller ScS Group PLC said Wednesday that ongoing economic and political uncertainty is continuing to impact consumer confidence and spending.
Speaking at the furniture retailer's annual general meeting, Chair Alan Smith said that in the 17 weeks ended November 23, the like-for-like order intake decreased 7.1% and the two-year like-for-like order intake decreased 4.0%.
"This is an improvement on the like-for-like trading for the first nine weeks of the year which we reported with our full-year results," Smith said.
The company said that business is trading in line with its expectations.
Back in October ScS reported pretax profit of GBP14.3 million for the financial year ended July 27, up 4.4% from GBP13.7 million the year before.
Since the end of July, however, the environment has been more challenging, due to Brexit concerns and weather that kept people outside rather than in shops, ScS had said.
Chief Executive David Knight said at the time: "Since the start of the current financial year, trading conditions have been more challenging, with like-for-like order intake falling 7.6% for the period from July 28 to September 29. This period was impacted by the record temperatures experienced by the UK across the August bank holiday weekend and the increasing political and economic uncertainty we are currently facing in the UK."
Smith said Wednesday: The group continues to focus on delivering a value proposition with excellent customer service whilst increasing our resilience. This puts us in a strong position to take advantage of opportunities which will add value in the longer term once the economy and consumer confidence improve."
ScS shares were down 2.0% in London at 217.65 pence each on Wednesday.
By Loreta Juodagalvyte; [email protected]
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