Country lifestyle brand Joules today became the latest retailer to report downbeat Christmas trading figures, blaming issues with online stock during the key January sales period.
Shares in the business dropped by more than 20 per cent this morning, from 227p at close of play on Thursday to 178p at 9.30am.
The brand said sales over the seven-weeks to January 5 were “significantly behind expectations” – down 4.5 per cent on the same period a year earlier.
This time last year trading had been 11.7 per cent up on the comparable period a year before that.
The business also warned it expected profits to be “significantly below market expectations” over the coming six months due to the knock-on effects of the continuing battling between the US and China over tariffs, which it expects to continue into next year.
In a trading update the Market Harborough-based business did however say it performed in line with the board’s expectations during the first half of its financial year and had a strong Black Friday.
It put the slow Christmas down to a disappointing online sales performance due to an internally generated stock availability issue during the end of season sale event – an issue that it said had now been addressed.
It said: “Encouragingly, traffic to the group’s website grew by 8 per cent, however conversion was significantly down due to the stock availability issue.
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“The group’s other retail channels, including stores and third-party concessions, where the group had good stock availability, performed in line with expectations. “
Chief executive Nick Jones said: “We are disappointed with our inability to fully satisfy our customers’ demand through our online channel during the important Christmas sale period.
“We have identified the root cause of this one-off issue and have taken steps to prevent its reoccurrence.
“Demand for the Joules brand and its unique products remains strong, with continued growth in total customer numbers and website traffic as well as robust results in our stores and partner retail channels.
“We remain focussed on continuing to expand the Joules brand and are making significant enhancements to our supply chain operations in the 海角视频 and US to deliver both future capacity growth and efficiency.”