Challenging year for sofa giant ScS

The Sunderland-based furniture and floorings firm, which floated on the stock market in January, was also dragged down by finance charges as well as £3.7 million of one-off costs from the listing.

It fell to a pre-tax loss of £1.7 million for the year to July 25 compared to a profit of £7.2 million the year before.

But shares rose 2 per cent after ScS said a dip in trading in April blamed on warm weather and the general election was “no more than a temporary setback” and reported accelerating growth for the start of the new financial year.

ScS said annual revenues were up 13.4 per cent to £276.7 million with online sales up 25.4 per cent to £8.4 million. Like-for-like order intake rose 5 per cent - which picked up to 13.3 per cent for the first nine weeks of the new financial year.

Chief executive David Knight said it had been a “challenging first year” for the company, but said recent trading was encouraging though the group faces tough comparisons with last year in the first half. The group opened three new stores in the year - in Glasgow, Croydon and Slough - to take the total to 96.

It launched 30 House of Fraser concessions in July last year, but the first full year operating these proved “challenging”, Mr Knight said. While they generated sales of £21.2 million, they had a “negative impact on our result”, the group said.

“We believe that as the concession matures, it will make a positive contribution to the group’s profits,” he added.