Profit warning sinks Ted Baker

FTSE 250 fashion house Ted Baker (LON:TED) has seen its share price plummet 26.94% to 983.41p (as of 12:00 BST) after the board cut underlying profit forecasts for the year. The company said that trading had remained difficult due to ongoing uncertainty in key markets as well as high levels of promotional activity. Total retail sales, including online sales, during the 19 weeks to 8th June dropped by 0.3%.

CEO Lindsay Page said: “Ted Baker remains an outstanding brand and, underpinned by the strength of our flexible business model, including a relatively low number of own stores that showcase the brand, we remain confident in our long-term growth prospects.

“As a team, we are proactively addressing the challenges we face as an industry. Several of our new product initiatives will commence imminently and we are confident in our collections for the coming season. We are relentlessly focused on achieving cost efficiencies as well as further cost savings throughout the business.

“We remain committed to the long-term development and expansion of Ted Baker as a global lifestyle brand. Over recent years, we have made a number of significant investments to ensure that the Group is well positioned to continue to adapt to structural changes in the retail sector“.