Sports Direct was forced to officially reduce its profit forecast today, a day after its controversial founder Mike Ashley effectively gave a profit warning in a newspaper interview.
The last six months has seen a dramatic change in fortunes for the UK's biggest sportswear retailer.
Ashley, who owns 55% of the company, has come under renewed fire in recent months from media, politicians and investors over the firm's employment practices and with trading deteriorating its shares have been in free-fall.
Having fallen 10% yesterday, they dropped a further 2.8% today and are down 42% on a year ago.
Flouting the strict rules on how companies disclose financial guidance, Ashley, told The Times newspaper that "We are in trouble, we are not trading very well. We can’t make the same profit we made last year."
In the interview, Ashley said "media intrusion" was hurting Sports Direct's results.
The company then issued a one-line "clarification" statement to the London Stock Exchange 24 hours later.
In it, Sports Direct said it now expected its full-year 2015-2016 underlying core earnings to come in "at or around the bottom of the range" which it announced in January, when it had also cut its forecast.
Analysts said that even more extraordinary than Ashley's admission that Sports Direct was struggling was his apparent belief that all its problems were caused by the media and lawmakers, rather than poor moves on acquisitions, the strength of rival JD Sports and consumer fatigue with its cluttered stores.
Sports Direct is also amongst the most exposed British retailers to strong dollar headwinds and rising labour costs as a result of Britain's new national living wage.
Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United soccer club, has also been embroiled in a row with UK politicians after a newspaper investigation alleged some Sports Direct staff were effectively earning less than the UK minimum wage.
The company has rejected criticism around its working practices and reviewed conditions.
Ashley has been called to appear before a Commons parliamentary committee in June to answer questions over how the company is run but has so far refused to attend.
He has instead invited lawmakers to visit his warehouse in Shirebook, central England, which they have refused to do.
If Sports Direct's core earnings were to come in at the bottom of the £380-420m range forecast in January, that would represent a small fall from the previous year when the firm made £383m.
