Fears are growing that the springs have gone at upholstered furniture specialist ScS, which holds its AGM on Monday.

Brokers are worried that the retailer is likely to be a big victim of slowing shopper spend and the market is awash with speculation that trading has been little short of disastrous. Concern has been heightened by what analysts have privately described as a wall of silence imposed by the retailer in recent months.

Numis has slashed its profit forecasts and cut its share price target from 175p to 110p. The broker expected ScS to have been hit by higher customer credit application rejection rates, as well as tough trading.

Numis also feared warehousing changes designed to improve efficiency could, in a contracting market, “result in a higher cost base, which has to be supported by lower and falling sales”.

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