French furnishings firm Roche Bobois SA has reported a decline in second quarter and half year sales.

According to its latest trading update, Q2 sales were down 6.7% to €110.2m from €117.7m in 2023, while half year sales were also down 8% to €204.4m from €221.7m.

Revenue generated in the United States/Canada and in Europe (excluding France) was in line with this trend, reflecting slight declines of respectively -6.6% and -6.7%, compared with Q2 2023. Roche Bobois France revenue was almost stable compared with Q2 2023 including the impact of the extended store scope.

During the period, the Group suffered a temporary delay in deliveries of orders, representing an amount of €5m over the quarter, all regions together, owing to a logistics delay at a supplier in Italy. These orders will be delivered during the second half.

In terms of outlook, Roche Bobois SA confirmed the anticipated return to growth in revenue in the second half, leveraging a still-solid portfolio of orders to be delivered amounting to €137.5m at 30 June 2024, providing clear visibility for the months ahead.

“For the whole of 2024, Roche Bobois confirms its target of generating full-year revenue equivalent, or even slightly exceeding the record of 2023,” the company said. “Notably, the Group will benefit from the contribution of the recently acquired franchised stores in the US/Canada region (two stores in Vancouver and Calgary) and in China (acquisition of a 51% stake in the historic Roche Bobois brand franchise) consolidated on a pro rata temporis basis over 20244.

“However, the slowdown in business and the temporarily weaker profitability of the newly directly-operated stores as they ramp up, logically will weigh on Group EBITDA which is likely to be down by around 5% to 10% over the year with a marked impact in H1 before a return to growth in the second half of the year.”