Sports Direct, the controversial retailer controlled by the billionaire Mike Ashley, today admitted that its first full year as a public company was the "hardest we have faced in our history" as it revealed pre-tax profits plunged by 51.1 per cent.

The company, which owns Lillywhites and the Sports World chain, blamed the sheer drop to £85 million for the year to April 27, 2008 on last year's torrential weather and England's failure to qualify for the Euro 2008 football championship. Full-year sales declined by 6.5 per cent to £1.26 billion.

Shares in Sports Direct fell by 5.23 per cent to an all-time low of 68p this morning and are trading 77.3 per cent below the 300p offer price the stock floated at in March 2007.

Dave Forsey, chief executive of Sports Direct, said: "The trading environment in Sports Direct's first year as a listed company has been the hardest we have faced in our history, inevitably impacting our results.

"This is, of course, disappointing, however despite these challenges we delivered slightly ahead of our recent expectations, remaining very profitable and cash generative."

Sports Direct has warned on profits three times since it came to the stock market and split with Credit Suisse, its corporate broker which helped the company float alongside Merrill Lynch which, in November last year, advised its clients to sell shares in the company.

Sports Direct is still operating under an acting chairman, Simon Bentley, after failing to find a permanent replacement for David Richardson, who left more than a year ago after a disagreement with the board.

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