Double blow from Laura Ashley

RETAILER Laura Ashley has delivered a double blow to investors, slashing its dividend and disclosing a sharp slide in current fashion sales. Shares in the business dived 17% in early trade to 19p.

Profits for the year ended 26 January rose just £200,000 to £8.6m. It blamed a lack of tourist spending after 11 September. Fashion sales rose 1% on a like-for-like basis, although home furnishings jumped 18%. That left total like-for-like sales 11% higher.

This slowed to 3.8% in the first 13 weeks of the current financial year. Fashion sales were off 5%, mainly thanks to a poor performance in Continental Europe. Sales growth slowed to 8.7% in home furnishings.

Chief executive KC Ng said: 'Laura Ashley performed resiliently in a particularly difficult trading environment. Whilst our fashion sales have been disappointing, we are extremely happy with the performance of home furnishings and see it as a key growth driver over the next year.' There was no final dividend.