McBride shares reach 5-year low after profit warning

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - Britain's McBride Plc (LSE: MCB.L - news) , a maker of own-brand household and personal care products, said it was likely to miss profit expectations this year, blaming a weak retail environment in Italy and Britain.

The warning sent its shares to a five-year low on Thursday. They were trading down 12 percent at 92.8 pence at 0741 GMT.

McBride said group revenue since the start of 2014 had fallen 4 percent, with private-label sales down 2 percent due to an "extraordinarily weak retail environment affecting our customers in UK and Italy".

It also said it had been hit by more promotions on rival branded products than last year.

The company said product launches should deliver an improvement in its final quarter, but it was unlikely to be enough to meet expectations for the year to the end of June 2014.

Analysts had penciled in pretax profit of 19.7 million pounds ($32.8 million) for the year, according to a consensus forecast compiled by Thomson Reuters (Frankfurt: TOC.F - news) . ($1 = 0.6012 British Pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)