Frasers Group lowers full year profit guidance
Frasers Group has lowered its profit guidance, citing the impact of the budget, tougher trading conditions and weakened consumer confidence.
The owner of Sports Direct and Flannels now expects its 2025 adjusted pre-tax profit to be between £550 million and £600 million compared to a previous forecast of £575 million to £625 million. It also anticipates that it will incur at least £50 million of incremental costs going into FY26 as a result of the budget.
In an update on first half trading for the 26 weeks to 27 October, Frasers Group said adjusted pre-tax profit fell by 1.5% to £299.2 million.
Meanwhile, retail revenue declined by 8.4%, although there was continued sales growth at Sports Direct. However, this was more than offset by planned declines at Game UK, Studio Retail and Sport Master in Denmark as the group worked to right-size the previously unprofitable businesses and put them on a more sustainable footing.
Michael Murray, chief executive of Frasers Group, said: “The first half of this year has been another period of progress for the group, delivering on our objectives as the Elevation Strategy continues to take the business to the next level.
“Sports Direct UK delivered further sales growth, and our property and financial services divisions are seeing encouraging progress.
“We continue to operate with discipline to ensure our business is as resilient as possible – proactively right-sizing recent acquisitions to set them up for profitable long-term growth and driving further automation benefits to exceed our stock reduction targets for the period.
“We are set to deliver another year of profitable growth but, given the recent weaker consumer confidence leading up to and following the budget, FY25 APBT is now expected to be in the range of £550 million to £600 million.”
