LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Shares in home goods business Ultimate Products Global Sourcing were in free-fall on Monday morning after the firm advised investors that it had not been immune to the challenges faced by companies across the general retail markets and that its full-year earnings were now seen coming in well below market expectations.
"These are tough market conditions for the general merchandise sector and we, like many others, are having to adapt to a more uncertain environment for both retailers and consumers," said chief executive Simon Showman.

UPGS saw revenues fall to £48.4m for the six months leading to 31 January, down from the £68.1m it posted a year earlier, as "ongoing challenges" and a one-off hit of around £4-5m as a result of a "key European customer" opting to move from free on board to landed arrangements beat revenues down.

The firm also noted that, while pleased with the quality of its pipeline and potential business opportunities, many orders were now scheduled to fall in its next financial year, meaning UP Global now anticipates full-year underlying EBITDA to be in the vicinity of £6m to £7m, which it referred to as being "below current market expectations".

"While the short-term outlook for the second half of this financial year is undoubtedly challenging, we are pleased with the pipeline of new business opportunities that is already in place for FY 2019, and in particular the strong order conversion that we are seeing with UK supermarkets for Autumn Winter 2018," Showman added.

As of 1120 GMT, shares had dive-bombed 43.28% to 34.60p.

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