Investors discarded Truworths stock on Thursday, sending the share price down more than 8% in intraday trade, after the clothing retailer released a business update that drove home the severity of the constraint on consumer spending. Truworths, led by Michael Mark, said sales in its first 18 trading weeks declined by 1% to R4.4bn compared with the year earlier. This excluded its acquisition of UK shoe chain Office. Including Office, sales increased by 39% to R6.2bn. Truworths’ share price closed 5.54% lower at R66.97. Barclays Africa Group investment analyst Chris Gilmour said the update was well below expectation. "I haven’t been that bullish on Truworths. Discretionary spending has come under immense pressure. Food inflation has a lot to do with that. The more you have to spend on food, the less you have to spend elsewhere," said Gilmour. Gilmour described the update as incredibly poor. He said while Truworths was a quality and not expensive company, the economic challenges in SA ...
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