A battle on two fronts seems to be taking the puff out of retailer Sports Direct (SPD). The company has been in the headlines for the allegedly poor working conditions of some of its warehouse staff. Management addressed the media claims head on in these results for the six months to October, reassuring investors that "no warehouse workers are on zero hours contracts".
The company's other battle was to achieve top-line growth despite comparative numbers buoyed by last year's World Cup. While it made a good fist of this by delivering flat revenue, the market obviously felt it had hit the crossbar rather than the net as analysts' consensus expectations were missed. This, alongside a 22 per cent plunge in operating profit following a £32.5m impairment of goodwill relating mainly to the underperforming Austrian business, sent the shares down 11 per cent on results day. Chief executive Dave Forsey said he remained confident of hitting the £420m underlying cash profit target for the full year - although in the July full-year results this was revised down from £480m.