Shoe Zone chief executive Nick Davis has resigned from his role as the retailer warns that full-year profits will be below expectations due to “tough high street trading”.
The budget footwear specialist said Davis, who has acted as chief executive for the last three years, has tendered his resignation to “pursue other business interests”.
He will be succeeded by executive chairman Anthony Smith, who will take on the role on a permanent basis, while current chief operating officer Charles Smith acts as executive chairman on an interim basis.
Shoe Zone said trading since its interim results in May had been “challenging” as strong performances across its big-box stores and ecommerce platform had “been offset by the tough high street trading environment”.
As a result, the footwear retailer said it “now expects to deliver a full-year performance below its expectations”.
The retailer also flagged that it was writing down the value of its 17 freehold properties by £3.1m to £5.3m, resulting in a non-exceptional cash charge in its full-year results, which will be released in October. The retailer said this write down would not impact the company’s dividend.
Chief executive Anthony Smith said: “”As has been widely publicised, the UK High Street is currently facing a challenging environment in which to operate. The pressure on the retail property market has enabled Shoe Zone to achieve an average 23.5% fall in rents on renewal and average outstanding lease length of only two years. As a consequence of this and the tough freehold property market, our freehold assets had to be revalued to represent fair value and give us future flexibility.
“While we therefore face a short-term impact on our balance sheet, we do not anticipate any change to our dividend policy, reflecting our confidence and excitement in the long-term growth opportunities through the Big Box roll-out, continued operational improvements and our multi-channel proposition.”
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