Chairman Michael Ziff today admitted his shoe retail firm Stylo had been caught out by the long summer - after failing to stock enough sandals.

The Apperley Bridge-based company, which owns the Barratts, Bacons, Saxone, Shellys and PriceLess brands, said the hot weather had contributed to the poor performance of the Barratts chain.

But Mr Ziff remained in upbeat mood despite the company announcing half-year losses of £4.6 million and a sluggish start to the important second half.

Despite the losses, turnover rose 7.8 per cent to £102.7 million and margins also improved.

But the cost of buying high-quality brand Shellys in April and problems with its Bradford-based distribution network had contributed to the overall losses, he said.

"It has been a difficult six months, but we said that it would be at the beginning of the year," said Mr Ziff. "No one should have been surprised by these results. The business is where we thought it would be but some things along the way have not gone quite as well as we thought they would."

And he said the hot weather had contributed to the performance of Barratts, which was "below expectations".

Mr Ziff admitted the company had under-stocked on sandals but said that performance had picked up on wet weather days.

The company said extra pension costs, economic uncertainty surrounding the Iraq conflict and increased concession commission costs had also contributed.

Since the group acquired Shellys for £1.5 million, turnover in the division had broadly met expectations, although a large amount of surplus stock and delays in placing orders for the autumn season affected margins.

Stylo said it had been addressing the stock surplus with an aggressive and ongoing clearance programme and a new management team had been put in place to take the business forward.

"Shellys has very strong brand recognition and design capability and we remain confident that the business will be an important contributor to group profits in the coming years," said Mr Ziff.

He added that the group's PriceLess discount shoe arm had continued to grow and had achieved excellent results.

The company has a network of 361 of its own stores and 314 concessions throughout the UK. It employs around 2,500 people. No interim dividend was declared.