Blacks Leisure issued a post-Christmas profit warning on Wednesday but insisted that the core outdoor wear business was recovering and poor trading was confined to a division selling boardwear.

Like-for-like sales were down 3.9 per cent in the 18 weeks to January 3 with the main Millets and Blacks chains down 0.5 per cent and the Freespirit and O’Neill boardwear chains down 19.2 per cent.