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Retailer Spar was once again under pressure after it gave details on slumping profits, while City Lodge says corporate and leisure travel has returned to pe-pandemic levels.
Retailer Spar warned shareholders to expect headline earnings per share to fall by between 43% to 53% in its year to end-September, while operating profit could more than halve from the prior year's R3.4 billion. The retailer has been hit by difficulties in the implementation of its new IT system, while its stores have also been forced to fork out millions of rands on diesel. IT woes have contributed to a R720 million in loss of profits, with the group also flagging impairments of associated goodwill and assets amounting to R440 million related to its decision to exit Poland. In afternoon trade, the group's shares were down just over 4%, having fallen almost 18% in the past year.
Hotel operator City Lodge reported its financial year kicked off with robust occupancies, with both corporate and leisure travel having returned to normalised pre-Covid trading levels. The group achieved 62% occupancies for the three months to end-September, from 54% in the prior year. A strategy to expand a food and beverage offering across all brands continues to deliver results with an increase of 44% in food and beverage revenue for the quarter, the group added. City Lodge's shares were 4% in afternoon trade but have lost a similar amount over the past year.
