Findel, the home shopping company, stunned the market with a bad debt provision only 15 days after an upbeat trading statement as the operator of catalogues such as Kleeneze acknowledged it was affected by the credit squeeze.

“The credit crunch is moving on from the banks and down into people’s pockets,” said Patrick Jolly, chief executive, who announced Findel’s provision for bad debt would be £5m worse than anticipated as cash-strapped customers failed to pay outstanding bills.