The upmarket retailer has seen a decrease in profit over the past year as customers, squeezed by high interest rates, cut discretionary spending.

Truworths, which also owns United Kingdom-based shoe retailer Office, sees its headline earnings per share dropping by 4% to 8% in the 26 weeks ended December 29.

Its shares were down 2.4% by 11h22 CAT.

The retailer, whose brands include Daniel Hechter, Uzzi and Naartjie, said group retail sales in the period grew by 2.4% to $670.60 million, a slower growth rate compared to 8.2% sales growth in the previous comparable year.

The main cause of the drag was its Africa unit, which reported a sales decline of 1.1% to $450 million during the period, which included Black Friday and Christmas trade.

--Reuters--