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DFS Furniture PLC on Friday cut its full-year revenue guidance as performance hit by hot weather in September and early October. The Dunstable, England-based sofa retailer update markets on the twenty six week period to December 24. Overall market demand has been weaker than anticipated, down approximately 9% on-year in volume terms. DFS thinks this performance was particularly impacted by record hot weather in September and early October when footfall and demand proved to be especially weak. Since then, the company said it has seen demand ‘recover’. It added that group order intake for the period was down 1.1% annually, but remianed ahead of the market. Gross sales, recognised on delivery of orders to customers were down 5.6%. Despite the tougher market conditions, DFS expects to report pretax profit for the first half to be slightly ahead of the prior years results of £7.1 million. ‘This has been supported by improved operational performance, manufacturing & sourcing and cost to operate efficiency programmes,’ it explained. Looking ahead, DFS cut its full-year revenue guidance to £1.02 billion to £1.04 billion, from £1.06 billion to £1.08 billion. It kept pretax profit guidance unchanged at £30 million to £35 million. It explained that reduced revenue is expected to be offset by progress lowering its operating costs. In financial 2023, DFS reported revenue of £1.09 billion and pretax profit of £29.7 million. Chief Executive Tim Stacey said: ‘The group has performed well in tough trading conditions. Despite the weaker than expected market, good operational performance and progress on gross margins and lowering our cost base have enabled us to deliver a profit for the first half that is slightly ahead of the prior year and we remain on track to deliver our full year profit target.’ DFS plans on releasing its interim results on March 19. Shares in DFS were down 2.0% to 113.00 pence each in London on Friday morning. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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