DFS Furniture plc (LON:DFS) shares dropped on Tuesday after the company posted its results for the first half of the year.
Shares in the furniture retailer were trading almost 7% lower on Tuesday.
DFS said that its year on year performance was hit by challenging market conditions, as consumer confidence and political uncertainty impacted footfall.
For the 26 week period to 30 December 2019, reported profit before tax amounted to £15.9 million.
Meanwhile, group revenue for the first half was down by 5.7% to £488 million, compared to the £517.6 million figure for the year prior.
DFS blamed this decline in revenue on a strong comparative period and said that it was expected.
“Despite the challenging retail environment, and excluding some isolated systems disruption in Sofa Workshop, our performance over the first half has been as expected, given the exceptional prior year comparative driven by latent demand,” Tim Stacey, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented in a statement.
“In particular we have seen a good performance by the DFS brand in driving conversion and margins and continued online sales growth,” the Group Chief Executive Officer continued.
The company warned that as the outbreak of the coronavirus continues to evolve, it is not possible to provide certain guidance for the full year.
The coronavirus outbreak has wreaked havoc on businesses across the globe.
Commenting on the situation, the Group Chief Executive Officer said: “Given the uncertainty as to how the current COVID-19 situation will develop it is not possible to give guidance with any certainty for the full-year out-turn. At present we believe our supply chain position should normalise before the financial year end, and it is only in very recent days that we have observed any change in consumer footfall to our showrooms.”
“Notwithstanding the uncertain short-term outlook, we remain confident in the Group’s financial strength and relative track record of performance in all environments. Furthermore, we believe our leading market position will allow us to drive long term attractive value creation for our shareholders.”
Shares in DFS Furniture plc (LON:DFS) were down on Tuesday, trading at -6.94% as of 11:32 GMT.