Strategic Retail, which owns home furnishings retailer Fads, has revealed a loss of £145,000 for the year to March 1 compared with profit of £194,000 the year before.

Revenue at Fads fell to£19.9 million against£21.5 million last year. Like-for-like sales were down 2 per cent. Seven loss-making Fads stores have been closed in the period.

The retailer blamed pressures on consumer spending and a slowing of the housing market for its performance.

Strategic Retail chairman IW Currie said: “The high street businesses which focus predominantly on home decoration have had to trade in a difficult market. The Fads store locations, which have nationwide coverage, have been carefully reduced to eliminate loss-makers or to achieve premiums where appropriate.

“We feel it is not presently appropriate to launch stores, with their obvious drain on working capital, while the economy is so close to recession. We will carefully monitor market conditions before pursuing further opportunities.”

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