Footwear retailer Shoe Zone is delaying its dividend ahead of an expectation of a “sustained period of challenging trading”.
The firm said it was taking the “prudent decision” to delay the 8p-per-share dividend agreed at its AGM on 5 March following a drop off in trading over recent days.
Shoe Zone said that while the full extent of coronavirus on the short and medium-term retail environment was not yet clear, it was “becoming ever more apparent that it will create significant disruption to people’s lives and shopping habits in the coming months”.
It said that the decision to defer and take steps to propose the cancellation of the 2019 final dividend had been taken with the unanimous backing of the board and was among number of appropriate measures being implemented to conserve the company’s cash balances and to “ensure the robustness of the business to protect it from a sustained period of challenging trading”.
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