Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter saw £600,000 wiped off his investment in home shopping business Flying Brands after it issued its second profits warning in three months on the back of a disappointing Christmas for its Flying Flowers operation.

Shares in the firm wilted by 6.12% to 115p yesterday knocking £2m off its value.

Hunter owns around 29.9% of Flying Brands, which has lost 15% of its value since the start of the week.

The Jersey-based company, whose businesses include mail order plant operation Gardening Direct and cards company Greetings Direct, blamed its performance on problems at Flying Flowers.

The business, it said, had suffered from a weak response to advertising and a lack of customer faith in the postal system following strikes last year.

It said the result was that total sales for the second half of the year had not increased from those of 2006.

There is to be a reshuffle at the top of the business after chief executive Mark Dugdale said he would leave the group before its annual meeting in April after serving for four years.

Hunter's West Coast Capital has also changed one of its two representatives on the board. Non-executive director James McMahon is stepping down to be replaced by Stephen Cook, a former group strategy director at Telewest Communications.

The company revealed that it is investing £2m in its core businesses, including an attempt to beef-up its internet offering to wean customers off its mail order business. It is due to unveil a platform for internet sales in February.

The company said its full year results "are likely to be slightly below market expectations", which had been for profits of around £5.3m.

It had already faced analyst downgrades after issuing a profits warning in October on the back of postal strikes.