Flying Flowers' shares dive again

FLYING FLOWERS, the mail order florist, wilted further yesterday after the company confirmed that its profits would be substantially lower than last year.

The shares, which stood at 592.5p in June, lost a third of their value to close at 148p after the company said full-year profits would be "not less than pounds 5m".

This compares to pounds 6.25m last year. The group will cut the off-the-page advertising for its troubled Gardening Direct operation by a third from this year's figure of pounds 3m. It will focus on its database of customers instead.

Flying Flowers will give a detailed statement to shareholders with its interim results on 2 September. Nigel Smith has resigned as managing director of the company's DPA subsidiary.