DFS Furniture Says Low Consumer Demand to Continue Weighing on Profit

By Christian Moess Laursen

DFS Furniture said pretax profit for fiscal 2023 dropped on challenging economic backdrop and low consumer demand, which should continue in the current financial year.

The U.K. furniture retailer said Thursday that pretax profit almost halved to 29.7 million pounds ($36.7 million) in the year ended June 25 from GBP58.5 million a year earlier.

Underlying profit before tax and brand amortization--a company-preferred metric--was GBP30.6 million, the lower end of the guided range of GBP30 million-GBP35 million, and a drop from prior-year's GBP60.3 million.

Revenue fell slightly to GBP1.09 billion from GBP1.15 billion, mainly on a challenging market environment compared to a year earlier when the market benefited from higher volumes linked to the pandemic, it said.

For fiscal 2024, the company backed its expectation of underlying profit before tax and brand amortization in the range of GBP30 million-GBP35 million. Revenue is expected to be between GBP1.06 billion and GBP1.08 billion.

"We are confident the market will recover, however we can't predict how quickly that will happen," it said.

DFS Furniture proposes a final dividend of 3.0 pence a share, in line with guidance, a decrease from 3.7 pence a year before.

Write to Christian Moess Laursen at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 21, 2023 03:04 ET (07:04 GMT)

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