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Outdoor clothing company Blacks Leisure issued a profit warning after sales at its boardwear brands Freespirit and O’Neill dropped by almost 11% over the Christmas period.

Blacks Leisure, which owns the Millets chain, reported that like for like sales in the six weeks up to January 12 were up 2.8% across the group however included in this figure was a fall of 10.8% for its Freespirit and O’Neill businesses. The Blacks and Millets brands shored up the overall performance with gains of 5.4% and 7.8% respectively.

A spokesperson for Blacks Leisure commented:

“The boardwear brands have experienced declining sales for most of the second half reflecting the effects of a weak clothing market. As a consequence, operating profits for the group for the full year, whilst ahead of last year, are likely to be below market estimates.”

The company made a corporate decision to retain the Freespirit boardwear brand after a review of strategy last year. The company’s largest shareholder, sportswear tycoon and owner of Newcastle United Mike Ashley, had threatened a boardroom coup unless the retailer halted a plan to sell the brand.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 6:45 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.