ScS has seen its shares dive after it warned of lower shopper numbers and orders.
The chain says ‘over the last seven weeks, the group has seen a reduction in store footfall and conversion with consumers spending less on big ticket discretionary purchases. This appears to be driven by a change in behaviour with consumers shopping earlier for Christmas when compared with previous years. The extended product lead times currently being experienced across the furniture and wider retail industry are also having an impact on current purchasing trends.’
Shareholders took fright, sending the share price down my more than 12%.
Two year like for like order growth for the 16 weeks to 20 November was 0.9% and fell by 10.6% compared with 2020.
At 20 November, the group’s order book was £131.9m, £71.5m above the same point two years ago. Online sales were 38.5% higher than in 2019.
‘The group is now preparing for the winter sales trading period, and whilst it remains difficult to predict shopping habits and consumer engagement, the business is planning to approach this key period in a manner consistent with that which has proven successful in previous years. We continue to work closely with our existing suppliers to mitigate current supply chain challenges. To broaden our customer proposition, we have recently partnered with new UK suppliers so that we can offer furniture on shorter lead times,’ it added.
