JERSEY-based stamps specialist Stanley Gibbons Group has warned that profits for 2008 will be below market expectations, after several years of substantial growth.

The share price plummeted 23% on Tuesday’s announcement. In the half year to 30 June, Stanley Gibbons reported a 12% increase in turnover to £9.8 million, with profit before tax up 11% to £1.9 million. The company had also been due to open a showroom in Jersey, to complement its Guernsey and London shops.

But in a trading update this week, the listed company said that during the year extended credit was given to ‘several key investment clients’ on £3.4 million of sales, on a 12-month buy-back guarantee, and that the board had decided to defer this revenue until next year.

The board said the clients had paid a 10% deposit and that they did not expect to have to call in the guarantees. Apart from this, the company’s turnover is broadly in line with 2007, as are earnings per share, and the company expects to recommend a dividend similar to the previous year’s.

Chairman Martin Bralsford said that recent trading was showing a high demand for stamps and collectables as alternative investments, with the current weak pound presenting ‘some exciting marketing opportunities’ in the US dollar and euro zones.

Stanley Gibbons chairman Martin Bralsford