British-based Bunzl, which supplies supermarkets, hospital and hotels with products ranging from carrier bags to toilet rolls, posted slower revenue growth for the first half, blaming the loss of two big customers and price declines in the United States.

The company also cautioned it was seeing challenging economic conditions and currency weakness affecting product purchase prices in Brazil and Australia, but said it expected its overall business to improve by the fourth quarter.

It reported revenue growth of 5 per cent in the first half of its financial year to £3.1 billion. That compared with 7 per cent growth a year earlier to £2.9 billion.

Shares in the company fell by more than 5 per cent making it one of the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 index which was down 2.3 percent. – (Reuters)