Analyst Views: What was your reaction to N Brown’s profit warning?
JOHN STEVENSON | PEEL HUNT
When I look at N Brown the strategy is right. But my concern is we are three weeks on from the second-quarter trading update when they were happy to commit to a 10 per cent profit rise and now we’re looking at a 15 per cent drop… The strategy day in February was the opportunity to say there will be unprecedented change.
JOE SPOONER | JEFFERIES
Clearly mild weather has been unhelpful for the broader sector trying to sell heavier autumn/winter clothing, but we expect the market to be shocked at the speed of the apparent turnaround at N Brown and other company guidance will undoubtedly be questioned.
KATE CALVERT | INVESTEC
While we believe management’s strategy is right for the businesses long term, arguably management has been too ambitious in its change programme, anticipated customer response and execution has been poor. We place our forecasts, recommendation and target price under review.