Shares in online retailer Asos plunged yesterday after it estimated that it had lost between £25 million and £30m of sales as a result of a serious fire at its main warehouse.
The fashion website was forced to suspend orders after a ferocious blaze in June affected 20% of its stock.
Adjusting for insurance proceeds, the company still expects profits for the year to August 31 to be in line with forecasts.
However, the fire has only heaped pressure on the business after a difficult 2014 in which it has already issued two profit warnings.
Shares slumped 13% in early trading yesterday as the firm’s chief executive Nick Robertson admitted there was unlikely to be a rebound in profits in the current financial year.
Asos said UK trading remained strong over the final quarter of the year, with sales up 33% compared with a year earlier.
Total sales for the group were up 27% over the year at £975.5m.
“In the new financial year we’ll make significant investments in our international pricing and proposition, as well as in our logistical infrastructure and technology platform,” Mr Robertson said.
“As a result, we expect profit before tax for the year to August 31 2015 to be at a similar level to 2013/14,” he said.
“We remain focused on the long-term opportunity for Asos, with £2.5 billion of sales as our next staging post.”
Asos’s websites attract 71.2 million visits per month.
The firm has 8.8 million active customers, of which 3.4 million are in the UK.
It stocks more than 90,000 branded and own-brand products aimed at 20-something customers.
Freddie George, a retail analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, retained his forecast for lower profits of £46m in the year to August, but reduced his target for the year to August 2015 from £55m to £48m.
He said: “There will inevitably be questions over the robustness of the company’s model, particularly its development strategy overseas.”
Shares in Asos closed the day down 215p or 8.9% at 2,207p.