Dr Martens' shares dropped to a record low today, after the bootmaker forecast its annual revenue to decline and profit to miss market views due to a slow start to the autumn-winter season and staggered wholesale demand.
Shares in the midcap firm, which made its market debut in 2021, dropped 23% to a record low of 88 pence in early trades.
The maker of the clunky 1460 boots with yellow stitching commonly known as "DMs", said today it expected revenue to decline by high single-digit percentage year on year, on a constant currency basis.
Full-year core profit is also expected to be "moderately below the bottom end of the range" of market expectations.
Analysts forecast a range of £223.7m to £240m, according to a company-compiled consensus.
The British company has been struggling with waning demand, especially in the US - its second-largest market by revenue - as wholesalers turn cautious amid a gloomy economic outlook.
"We expect that it will take longer to see a material improvement in US performance than initially anticipated," Dr Martens said in a statement.
"Wholesale customers have low in-market inventory levels of our products, and therefore, we can expect them to re-order, however the timing and level of these re-orders are unpredictable, reducing visibility in our wholesale business," it added.
For the first half of the year, the company said its wholesale revenues dropped 17% to £199.4m.
