COMPETITION and a “lacklustre” festive sales period meant profits at shoe retailer Schuh slid by almost 10 per cent in the year to the start of February despite turnover rising by the same proportion.

The firm, which operates a chain of stores in the UK, Ireland and Germany, said that while turnover increased from £280.9 million to £308.5m pre-tax profits decreased from £16.6m to £15m.

According to the firm, which is headquartered in Livingston but owned by US business Genesco, the fall in profitability came as a result of the “overtly promotional retail environment”.

“We had a strong start to the year, however, from Black Friday onwards, in line with retail generally, we found the market much tougher,” said finance director David Gillan Reid. “The promotional environment on the high street continued right through until Christmas, culminating in a lacklustre festive sales period.”

Aside from a one-off profit spike to £25.6m in the year to February 2013, Schuh’s profitability has hovered around the £12m to £16m mark for the past several years.

Despite the dip in the last financial year, the firm is continuing to invest and earlier this year redesigned its website and opened both an adult and a children’s store at the Fort Kinnaird shopping centre in Edinburgh.

Further expansion will see it open a store in Eastbourne as well as a kids store at Bristol shopping centre Cribbs Causeway.

The company was bought by Tennessee-based Genesco in a £125m deal seven years ago. Thanks to a series of performance targets put in place as part of that deal, staff at the firm shared in a £25m bonus in 2016.

The amount paid out to each member of staff varied according to salary and length of service, but was worth as much as £14,000 for full-time store managers earning £34,000 a year with 10 years’ service. Staff at the business also shared in a £37m windfall following the Genesco deal.