Poundland (LON:PLND) shares were on offer at a cut price after the retailer's like-for-like (LFL) sales growth stalled.
The single-price retailer, which recently acquired rival 99p Stores, saw sales rise 5.6% year-on-year on a constant currency basis in the six months to 27 September, but LFL sales were down 2.8%.
Underlying earnings, or EBITDA, tumbled 18.5% to £16.8mln from £20.7mln in the same period of 2014, while underlying profit before tax declined 26.3% to £9.3mln from £12.6mln.
Getting its excuses in early, the company did point out that the corresponding reporting period of 2014 had been an exceptional one for Poundland.
Rather than looking in the rear-view mirror, Jim McCarthy, the chief executive of Poundland, preferred to look ahead to the benefits of adding the 99p Stores estate to the branch network.
“The early sales uplifts from the first converted stores are very encouraging and we now plan to accelerate the conversion programmes so that the vast majority of 99p Stores will be converted by the end of April 2016,” McCarthy said.
“We're confident of achieving at least £25 million of incremental EBITDA from the acquisition and we are now increasing our UK & Ireland store target from 1,070 to 1,400 stores,” McCarthy revealed.
The chief executive noted that the comparative sales numbers get a lot easier to beat in the second half of the financial year, while he claimed the Christmas range this year was the best ever in the company's history, although, in the words of Christine Keeler, he would say that, wouldn't he?
Shares plunged as low as 215.82p at one stage from 278.6p overnight before recovering a little to 227.5p in mid-morning trading.