 took on Wednesday, after the company issued a profit warning.){kind=link}
Shares in Franco Manca owner Fulham Shore (LON:FUL) took on Wednesday, after the company issued a profit warning.
Fulham Shore, which also owns The Real Greek restaurants, warned of difficult market conditions impacting profits for the year.
Moreover, rapid expansion efforts ate into profits, with the company having opened seven Franco Manca’s in the UK, one franchise in Italy, and three The Real Greek restaurants since the commencement of the 2018 financial year.
“Despite hitting our group targets for the first quarter of this financial year, during the holiday season in July and August the group has seen a slowdown in trade, primarily from our restaurants in London suburbs,” the company said in a statement.
Despite the noted slowdown in some of its locations, the company attributed this to a wider more challenging environment.
“We believe this is a sector-wide trading pattern and not unique to our brands.” the company added.
The company said on Wednesday that it is in midst of building two more of its sourdough pizza offerings in London and Bristol.
This is set to be alongside the opening of 15 new restaurants, which remains in line with previous expectations.
But higher costs are exerting some pressure on performance and the company said that, as a result of this, top-line earnings for the full financial year would likely be “less than current market expectations”
The whole group now has a portfolio of 56 sites of which 40 are Franco Manca restaurants.
As of currently, shares in the group are down 22.17 percent as of 11.38AM (GMT).
This follows Tuesday’s UK retail and manufacturing figures, which despite a rebound in August, still showed consumers feeling the impact of higher inflation levels and tightening their spending.
Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium Dickinson remained concerned about the future of UK’s retail industry, commenting:
“Stark challenges lurk around the corner for the retail industry… with the amount of money in people’s pockets set to be dented by inflation and statutory rises in employee pension contributions in a few months’ time.”