Construction firms in the retail sector should be braced for further spending cuts from the big retailers experts warned after Tesco slashed its store refurbishment budget

Last week, Tesco cut 拢400m from its capital spending budget as the retail giant issued another profit warning, attributed to 鈥渃hallenging trading conditions鈥.

In a statement to the City, the retail giant said it would cut its capital spending programme by 拢400m to 拢2.1bn in this financial year.

It said: 鈥淭his will be achieved in a number of areas including IT and the slower roll-out of our store refresh programme.鈥

The announcement came as the firm said that it had cut its profit forecast for this financial year from 拢2.8bn to between 拢2.4bn and 拢2.5bn.

It said 鈥渃hallenging trading conditions鈥 and Tesco鈥檚 鈥渙ngoing investment in our customer offer鈥 had been the cause of the profit warning.

Richard Broadbent, chair of Tesco, said the decision to cut capital spending had 鈥渘ot been taken lightly鈥 and was a step to 鈥渆nable Tesco to retain a strong financial position鈥 and strategic options.

However, Tesco added that incoming chief executive Dave Lewis, who joined the retailer from consumer goods giant Unilever on 1 September, would be 鈥渞eviewing all aspects of the group鈥.

David Gray, retail analyst at Planet Retail, said that he expected to see further capital spending cuts from the big retailers.

鈥淭he middle ground [of the retail market] is being squeezed and they don鈥檛 want to cut their margins so they have to cut their capital expenditure,鈥 he said.

He added he was 鈥渟urprised鈥 Tesco was cutting store refurbishment because he said he had seen figures that showed the chain鈥檚 refurbished stores experienced a 3-5% uplift in sales, which he said was 鈥渜uite good鈥.

Paul Zuccherelli, partner at Alinea Consulting, said he expected further capital spending cuts from the retail giants. He said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we have reached the bottom yet.鈥

鈥淭he one that might buck that trend is Morrisons. They are one of the few winners and they are laying down space in small stores,鈥 he said.

Topics