Frasers Group slumps into the red

Frasers Group, formerly Sports Direct, has slumped into the red and has warned that it expects further Covid lockdowns to happen over the next 12 months.

The firm, which is headquartered in Shirebrook, made a loss after tax of £78m for the year-ending April 28 – down from a profit of £101m last year. Revenue at the retail giant also dropped by 8.4% to £3.62bn.

A statement from Mike Ashley, chief executive, said: “The board of Frasers Group has continued to consider the probable return of restrictions during FY22, including within its accounting judgements and estimates for FY21. As the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to cause future uncertainty, including the Delta variant surge we are currently seeing, the board of Frasers Group considers it cannot currently confirm with enough material accuracy what the outcome for FY22 will look like.

“Based on this we will not be giving a projection to the market for FY22 performance.

“We will review the current situation again at the half year and depending on whether there is more certainty on further restrictions or not we may be able to give guidance at that point.”