Dr Martens profits slump, Bodycote backs full-year guidance

London open

The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 40 points.

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Troubled bootmaker Dr Martens posted a bigger-than-expected fall in annual revenue and operating profit as its US woes continued but held guidance for the current year and announced a cost savings target of up to £25m.

Revenue fell 12% to £877m against expectations of £900m, while operating profit plunged by a third to £122m compared with forecasts of £125m. Pre-tax profits were down 43% to £97m.

"Our 2024 results were as expected and reflect continued weak USA consumer demand. This particularly impacted our USA wholesale business and offset our group direct-to-consumer performance, where pairs grew by 7%," said outgoing chief executive Kenny Wilson.

"For the first half, we expect a group revenue decline of around 20%, driven by wholesale revenues down around a third."

Heat treatment and thermal processing services group Bodycote left its full-year outlook unchanged after reporting solid underlying growth since the start of 2024 against a "mixed picture of end market dynamics".

Group revenues declined to £268m, from £281m the year before, though organic growth at constant currency excluding surcharges would have been 2.7%. The company said that underlying growth was offset by surcharges, which halved to around £14m as energy prices fell, as well as a foreign exchange headwind of £10m compared with last year.

Newspaper round-up

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US close

US stocks declined on Wednesday with all but three stocks on the Dow finishing in the red as investors continued to scale back their appetite for risk ahead of key inflation data later in the week.

"Global equities shuddered at the prospect of interest rates staying higher for longer," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

"Despite plenty of earlier signals that central banks were in no rush to cut rates until inflation had fallen further, investors are only now coming to terms with the idea that monetary policy will stay tight for just a bit longer."

The Dow finished down 1.1% at 38,441.54, falling for the fifth time in the last seven days as it continues to pull back from the 40,000+ level reached on 17 May. The Nasdaq, which hit a new closing high of 17,019.88 on Tuesday, retreated 0.6% to 16,920.58, while the S&P 500 fell 0.7% to 5,266.95, having touched a fresh peak last week.