Laura Ashley cancels final dividend

Laura Ashley saw its top-line shrink over the past financial year partly as a result of weakness in sterling, even as it expanded its international presence in India and China, and said it would eliminate its final dividend.

For the 52 weeks to 30 June, total group sales tumbled to £277m from £400.9m over the prior 74-weeks of trading.

On a like-for-like basis they were only 3.1% lower.

In parallel, online sales grew 5.6% on a like-for-like basis, which the company attributed to the positive customer responses to the improvements made to its multi-channel offering.

Laura Ashley also touted its success in growing the company's international presence, having signed a new license partner in India earlier in the year amid plans to open its first store in that country next month.

As well, in November the company launched its Chinese website and on Wednesday said it was making good progress on enhancing its presence in the territory.

Online revenue came to £57.3m from £73.5m in the 74-week period while hotel revenues also downsized to £2.5m from £3.5m.

Nevertheless, in the latter like-for-like sales were up by 5.6%.

Profit before tax and exceptional items totalled £8.4m from £24.7m, alongside a similar fall in statutory profits before tax to £6.3m from £22.8m.

The group also announced that it would not be recommending payment of a final dividend although an interim payout of 0.5p had already been distributed.

In 2016, it paid an interim dividend of 2.5p.

As of 1319 BST, the shares were 4.71% lower to 8.30p.