Trembling floor for UK high street footwear retailers

The likes of ShoeZone and Clarks are not going through their best moment. British leading shoes retailers are going through troubled waters due to a year of heavy discounting and warmer-than-expected weather.

Aim-listed Shoe Zone Wednesday posted a 26 percent dent in its half-year profits of 2 million pounds, compared to the 2.7 million pounds it bagged a year earlier. Revenue was also down (-5.7 percent) to 78.2 million pounds and was closely linked to the closure of nine loss-making stores, according to the company.

The multi-brand show retailer also said the warm weather conditions slowed revenues towards the end of the first half.

Chief executive Anthony Smith said that they “have made solid progress across the business in the first half and are particularly pleased with the performance in multichannel, where we saw a 30 percent increase in revenue.”

Smith added: “We remain focused on our growth levers: extending and improving our product range to leverage our market-leading position in the value sector, driving efficiency in our property portfolio; operational investment in our warehouse facilities and enhancements to our multichannel offering.”

Meanwhile, things were not better for high street peer Clarks, which blamed its recent struggles on high street discounting and problems in its American business. Its annual sales fell 3.2 percent to 1.49 billion pounds in the last year. Despite the flat profits, Clarks paid out 26.4 million pounds in dividends in the last year, recalls ‘This is Money’.