Insurance firm Hastings has seen shares dive after warning that profits will miss forecasts because of rising claims costs.
The UK firm also cuts its shareholder dividend as it told investors the company had seen repair costs soar higher in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The company said it was also weighed down by third party credit costs and a "small number of larger bodily injury losses" during the three months to December.
READ MORE: Oil and gas firms warned social licence to operate is under threat
It said it now expects to post operating profits of around £110 million for the year.
Hastings said it has continued to apply price increases ahead of the market, which it said means customer policies have remained broadly flat over the second half of 2019.
The company said it would cut its shareholder dividend for 2019 as a result of the slip in profits but did not confirm the exact pay-out.
Shares in the company fell 8.2% to 170p in early trading on Friday.
Cranswick's, the sausage maker, said that profit for the financial year will beat market expectations.
The company said that a "robust performance" had continued over the important Christmas period.
READ MORE: Industrial giant which saved Scotland's steel plants reveals Clydebridge hotel investment
It said that revenue continued to grow in each of its four categories, fresh pork, poultry, convenience and gourmet products.
The company said it started to invest more in its pig farms, including an acquisition of Packington Pork Limited late last year.
The business is based in Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
It comes as Cranswick lines up to grab a slice of the pork market in Asia.
The market update from Cranswick did not reveal its predictions for adjusted profit before tax, but said it would be higher than market expectations.
Last year's pre-tax profit hit £86.5 million.
Darren Shirley and Clive Black, analysts at Shore Capital Markets, upgraded their current pre-tax profit forecasts by 10.8% to £97.5 million.
Shoppers cut down on both how much they bought and the amount they spent at the end of last year, new figures show.
In the three months to December, amount spent and quantity bought fell 0.9% and 1% respectively when compared with the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics said.
READ MORE: Scotland ‘on cusp of superfast revolution’
On a month-by-month basis, the amount spent dropped 0.3% and quantity bought was down 0.6%, compared with increases of 1.5% and 0.9% respectively a year earlier.
Rhian Murphy, ONS head of retail sales, said: "Retail sales fell sharply in the latest three months, with almost all sectors showing a decline.
"The longer-term picture is still one of growth, although it has slowed considerably in recent months.
"December was the fifth consecutive month with no growth as food stores suffered particularly poor sales, showing the steepest fall for three years."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article