Huge rise in British profit warnings

The number of profit warnings among UK-listed companies showed the sharpest increase for a decade in the last three months of 2011.

There were 88 warnings, 73 per cent up on July-to-September according to figures produced by Ernst & Young. High-profile examples included the fashion retailer Supergroup, which had problems with its IT in October, and the online grocer Ocado, which experienced disruptions when expanding its main distribution depot.

The dismal figures showed that retailers, support services groups and IT companies issued the most profit warnings for the whole of 2011, with more than 30 in each sector.