Crawshaw tumbles as group warns of 'continued challenging trading'

30th Aug 2018 08:21

(Sharecast News) - British butcher Crawshaw told investors on Thursday that trading at its high street shops had remained "challenging" throughout the first half of its trading year.Crawshaw said that rising rent and high business rates, coupled with lower footfall and increased competition from discounters, had directly impacted sales and profitability.The firm revealed that half-year like-for-like sales had dropped 13.2%, while group sales fell from £22.1m to £21.6m.As a result of the "continued challenging trading", Crawshaw now expects full-year group sales to be flat on the previous year and to post an underlying operating loss of approximately £3m.Crawshaw said its new leadership team, which joined the business in late May, had identified "the core issues affecting the business" and would announce how it plans to rectify them and drive the business forward when it publishes its interim results on 26 September.As of 0845 BST, Crawshaw shares had crashed 39.92% to 3.70p.