NEW affordability assessment regulations have taken a toll on furniture retail group Lewis, which advised shareholders in a trading update on Monday that revenue growth in the December quarter had slowed from the matching period last year.The group, as well as besides its flagship branded stores owns Beares and Best Home and Electric, said putting these rules in place — which require customers to produce three months’ payslips or bank statements when applying for credit — had proven to be challenging for its lower-to middle-income clientele and affected trading.Revenue increased 1.1% in the three months to December from the corresponding period last year, while merchandise sales were flat. This is a significant deceleration from the previous comparative period.Revenue growth for the December quarter in 2014 had been 8% and merchandise sales growth 12%, "boosted by the group’s acquisition of the Beares chain", CEO Johan Enslin told Business Day on Monday.In November 2014, Lewis bough...
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