Moss Bros sees full-year operating profit below expectations

(Reuters) - Apparel retailer Moss Bros Group Plc <MOSB.L> expects full-year operating profit before items to be "materially lower" than market expectations as first-half like-for-like sales dropped, it said on Friday.

The company's like-for-like retail sale s, including e-commerce, slid 6.9 percent in the first half ended July, hit by a protracted period of hot weather and the football World Cup, it said.

(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)