Laura Ashley swings to loss as furniture business struggles

LAURA Ashley has swung to a loss as a continued decline in its home furnishings business and changes to its website weighed on sales.

The high-street stalwart revealed it made a pre-tax loss of £14.3m in the year to June 30, compared to a profit of £100,000 this time last year.

Excluding exceptional items, the loss before tax came in at £9.8m versus last year’s £5.6m profit.

Total group sales were down 9.6% to £232.5m, with like-for-like retail sales falling 3.5%.

Andrew Khoo, the brand’s chairman, said: “The last 12 months have proved to be a difficult trading period for the group and indeed for the retail sector as a whole.

MARKET REPORT

WEAK US manufacturing figures and the strengthening pound after Boris Johnson’s latest Brexit talks both pulled down UK-listed stocks. The FTSE 100 closed 75.79 points lower at 7,128.18 at the end of trading yesterday.

The pound strengthened after the Prime Minister’s talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, weighing down the UK markets despite strong jumps by some stocks.

The pound was 0.96% up at 1.224 versus the US dollar, and up 0.93% against the euro at 1.104.

European markets also dipped after the Bundesbank said it does not currently see the need for fiscal stimulus,

“The primary causes for the year-onyear drop in profit have been the performance of Home Furnishing and that of our website following a re-platforming exercise which took place in November 2018.”

Within the home category, furniture and decorating were hit especially hard, with like-for-like sales down by 9% and 13.7% respectively.

Home accessories, which accounts for the biggest slice of UK sales, rose by 1.1% on a comparable basis.

But comparable fashion sales were up 9.2%.

Meanwhile, the relaunch of the website led to online sales falling 14.2%.

Shares in the company were down 5% in early trading yesterday. stifling the German Dax index, which fell by 0.47%. The French Cac moved 0.88% lower.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones was fairly stagnant, edging into the red after underwhelming economic data from the US and Wednesday’s neutral update from the Fed.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were up 360p at 2,296p, up 4.05p at 114.65p, up 41p at 1,900p, and

up 4.7p at 191.75p.

The biggest fallers were

18.5p at 521p, 1,204.5p and down down 38p at down 118p at 3,826p, down 82p at 2,122p.