Dublin, July 31 - Irish drinks group C&C said on Tuesday its trading performance deteriorated sharply in July, due mainly to poor weather, pushing shares in the maker of Magners cider as much as 28 percent lower.
C&C said it expected first-half operating profit to fall by around 35 percent and that this was a worse performance than anticipated in a trading update on July 13, when it forecast flat operating profit for the year ending Feb. 28, 2008.
"Trading performance deteriorated at an unexpected rate during the second half of July," C&C said in a statement.
"The impact of the extremely poor weather ... together with increased competition, leaves a degree of uncertainty in respect of the outlook for the second half year for the cider division," it said.
Shares in C&C, which were up 1.6 percent before the statement, were trading 24.5 percent lower at 6.16 euros by 1350 GMT, having earlier slumped to 5.85 euros.
C&C said it would give an outlook for the second half of the year when it reports interim results on October 10.