Investors put boot into Dr Martens share price

The share price at boot and shoe maker Dr Martens dropped significantly on Thursday morning (November 30) on the back of a profit warning.

Its shares fell 20% after the iconic Northants firm warned that its troubled US business would take longer than expected to recover.

The retailer posted a major slump in profits for the six months to the end of September, down 57% to £19m. Full-year profit will be around £5m lower than expectations, said Dr Martens.

Earlier this year, the company blamed “people and process” errors, which caused a bottleneck of stock at its Los Angeles plant. It opened three temporary warehouses to release excess shipping containers and store stock away from the LA distribution centre.

A third shift was added to focus on the additional work required to unblock the bottleneck and transfer excess stock to the temporary warehouses.

The drop on Thursday morning means that almost 55% has been wiped off the value of shares this year.