The parent company of local furniture chain Courts has seen its shares slump to their lowest level since 1991 yesterday after it announced that Hurricane Ivan had put a US$7M hole in its profits.
According to UK press reports the company has a large and profitable business in the Caribbean with 91 stores. A Daily Express article noted that 70% of the chain's shares came from the Caribbean last year. It has been undergoing extensive restructuring of its overall business but also of its supply chain which Leo McKee, the recently appointed chairman, said had been "non-existent."
Courts has 2,800 staff in the Caribbean, where it sells electrical goods as well as soft furnishings. The hurricane had hit its business in both Jamaica and Grenada. The company had set up a crisis recovery team to help staff left homeless and to deal with the disruption to the business.
No employees had been injured. McKee said: "A hell of a lot of our staff in Grenada were left homeless. It was a case of establishing contact and making sure everyone was accounted for. It was a very tricky situation."
He said all of the group's Jamaican stores had already reopened and that it had re-established a trading presence in Grenada.
A Financial Times article said Courts was still assessing the financial impact of the hurricane but that its current estimate of the potential impact was that it would reduce profits by between £4 million and £7 million this year. The hurricane came at the end of a "very challenging" first half in which Courts started restructuring its UK business in a bid to turn around deteriorating sales.
The group posted annual losses of £34.4 million in its last financial year, far worse than had been expected.
Courts has 350 outlets in 20 countries including the UK.