There was shock this morning as Debenhams, for so long the king pin at the heart of Gloucester city centre's retail offering, announced pre-tax profits fell 84 per cent for its last six months of trading.

The retailer, which also had a major store in Cheltenham until John Lewis took over the site, said the Beast from the East cold snap had not helped, forcing it to close 100 stores.

Back in January the embattled retailer has already issued a profit warning and on top of today's results (April 19) it also revealed its chief financial officer, Matt Smith, was leaving to take up a role at Selfridges.

Debenhams said challenging UK retail conditions resulted in like-for-like sales falling 2.2 per cent in the 26 weeks to March 3.

But analysts were still left in shock this morning when the firm revealed the bottom line was that pre-tax profits had fallen 84 per cent from £87.8 million to £13.5 million.

Experts had expected the fall to be more in the region of £44 million.

Revenue was down 1.6 per cent to £1.65 billion. Shareholders saw their interim dividend cut by 51 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

As well as the bad weather the chain also blamed a disappointing Christmas season.

Sergio Bucher, chief executive, was putting on a brave face: "It has not been an easy first half and the extreme weather in the final week of the half had a material impact on our results.

"But I am hugely encouraged by the progress we are making to transform Debenhams for our customers."

The business had a strong team, he said, and the right plan in place to return to profitable growth.