McBride shares washed out by profit warning
SHARES in McBride plunged nine per cent yesterday after the maker of own-brand household and personal care products announced another fall in quarterly sales and issued a profit warning.
The soap and laundry detergent company said revenues fell four per cent in the third quarter of the year and that given the ongoing tough retail environment, it is unlikely to meet market expectations for the year to June.
Investec analyst Nicola Mallard downgraded the broker’s pre-tax profit forecast by 20 per cent to £17m and profits for 2015 by 15 per cent.
“We had been expecting a better revenue performance in the second half, forecasting a small increase, although we did highlight that this was dependent on the UK performance,” she said.
Sales at McBride’s private label business, which supplies retailers with own brand products, fell two per cent, which it blamed on “extraordinarily weak retail environment” in UK and Italy combined with fierce competition among branded rivals fighting to match retailers’ own brands on price.
Its other markets France, Benelux, Germany and Poland performed well but failed to offset weak trading in the UK and Italy.
McBride is conducting a strategic review of its UK business and said it will update the market at the time of its next trading update.