Analysts seek Quiz answers over recent sales performance

Recent sales performance at Glasgow-based fashion clothing business Quiz will come under the spotlight when it reports interim results this week.

Analysts at Peel Hunt described Quiz's slowdown in third-party website sales as 'surprising and disappointing'

Underlying earnings for the first half of the year are expected to be about £5.5 million, £1.5m lower than had been forecast before the company issued a profit warning in October.

The alert saw its shares tumble and they have lost further ground since. Last week they were trading at around 42p compared to levels of more than 200p in July.

The company is now valued at just a quarter of the £200m valuation it achieved when it floated on the Alternative Investment Market in 2017.

The profit warning was blamed on lower-than-expected sales through third-party online partners in the second quarter of year, a weaker sales performance at its UK stores and concessions during September and a provision relating to House of Fraser debt.

Analysts at Peel Hunt described the slowdown in third-party website sales as “surprising and disappointing”.

There have been five warnings from Scottish listed companies in the third quarter of the year, the highest total for the period since 2015.

Perth utility giant SSE and five-a-side pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres are among the others to have warned of lower profits than expected.