Ted Baker shares tumble after trading conditions warning
Fashion retailer’s chief executive says wintry weather in Europe and US has deterred shoppers
More than £140m has been wiped off the value of the fashion retailer Ted Baker after it warned that challenging trading conditions had been compounded by the recent heavy snows.
The shares tumbled 13% on Thursday after its chief executive, Ray Kelvin, said that wintry weather had deterred shoppers from updating their wardrobes both here and in the US.
“The recent unseasonal weather across Europe and the east coast of America has had an impact on the early part of trading for spring/summer,” said Kelvin. “We anticipate that external trading conditions will remain challenging across many of our global markets.”
His gloomy prognosis came despite a successful year when both sales and profits grew strongly. Pre-tax profits rose 12% to £69m, while sales were up more than 11% at £592m.
Kelvin’s cautious outlook added to the gloom in the retail sector after a series of updates from major retailers on Wednesday had pointed to a level of distress and weak consumer confidence not seen since the financial crisis a decade ago.
Moss Bros issued a stark profit warning while the landlords of the fashion chain New Look approved a plan that will see it axe 980 jobs and close 60 stores via a so-called company voluntary arrangement (CVA). It also emerged that Carpetright is also seeking a CVA as it looks to shed up to a quarter of its 409 UK stores. Mothercare, the struggling parent and baby retailer that is in talks with its banks, said it had been given more time to secure extra funding.
Carpetright, Moss Bros, Kingfisher and New Look hit by retail woes
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The failure of Maplin and Toys R Us last month had already dealt a severe blow to high street confidence as together the chains ran more than 300 stores and employed 5,500 staff. On Thursday PwC, which is overseeing the Maplin administration, made a further 66 redundancies at its head offices in London and Rotherham, bringing the total number of job losses at the chain to 129.
“While the latest news of struggles at Moss Bros, New Look, Mothercare and Carpetright has further ignited concerns over the state of retail in the UK, Ted Baker’s latest results provide a glimmer of hope as the premium lifestyle brand continues to build on its successes,” said Charlotte Pearce, an analyst at GlobalData.
She added: “By generating a decent proportion of sales from international markets, Ted Baker will be more protected considering the tough UK retail climate.”.
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