Late-night bars group Po Na Na saw its full-year forecasts cut after stiff competition and a shake-up of its estate hit home.

The group, which also runs the SchoolDisco branded clubs, is offloading under-performing sites and has only a handful left to sell.

But the disruption rocked its half-year performance, dragging down sales and profits.

The disposal programme should be completed by the March year-end and chairman Christian Arden warned that business would continue to suffer until then because of those underperforming sites earmarked for sale.

It means house broker WestLB Panmure has now lowered final forecasts for the second time this year, from £3.1 million to just £600,000.

WestLB had originally predicted final pre-tax profits of £5.4 million.

Stiff competition also affected today's interim results.

Mr Arden said: "There's been too much growth in the pub sector. There are just too many pubs on the High Street. We've protected our margin but overall sales are under pressure."

Turnover in the six months to September 29, fell from £17.2 million to £16 million and pre-tax losses were £200,000, against pre-tax profits of £700,000 last time.

Yet Mr Arden remained upbeat about the long-term success of the core business.

He said the disposal programme would leave Po Na Na well-positioned for future growth while new openings in Brighton and Portsmouth were trading well.

Of the group's 49 bars and clubs, 23 are core Po Na Na branded sites and five are still to be sold, with contracts already exchanged on three.

Po Na Na has offloaded ten bars so far. It had aimed to revamp the sites when it bought them but tough conditions meant it opted to sell instead.