Further signs of weakening UK consumer spending came on Monday after Clapham House, the restaurant group, and Regent Inns, the pub and diner group, warned profits would come under pressure this year.

Clapham House, the owner of the Bombay Bicycle chain of Indian restaurants and the Gourmet Burger Kitchen restaurant group scaled back its expansion plans in the face of the uncertain economic outlook and said its debt was higher and costlier than it had expected.

Shares in the group nearly halved in early trading on Monday as analysts raced to slash profit forecasts. The shares were down 47 per cent at 132½p, a fall of 116p.

The group, which also operates The Real Greek and Tootsies outlets, said it would report interim results on Wednesday which would show a rise in adjusted pre-tax profits from £1.2m to £1.5m. It promised a full update then.

It blamed weak consumer spending, food price inflation and higher rents for new restaurants for its difficulties. However, it still anticipated "strong growth" for the years to March 2008 and 2009.

David Page, executive chairman, said "we remain positive about the medium-term demand trends for the UK eating out market."

Clapham House becomes the latest business with exposure to the consumer market to warn.

Regent Inns, which owns the Jongleurs, New Orleans and Walkabout chains, said the consumer slowdown would lead to shortfall in this year's profits. The bar owner and restaurant group also blamed late night drinking and England's failure to qualify for next year's football European championship finals for the deteriorating outlook. The shares slumped 15¼p or more than 35 per cent to 27½p.

The bad news from Clapham House and Regent affected other restaurant stocks. Domino's Pizza shares fell 20½p or more than 10 per cent to 173¾p, and The Restaurant Group, which owns the Chiquito and Garfunkel's chains, was down 25¼p or nearly 12 per cent at 192¾p. Pub groups Mitchells and Butlers and Enterprise Inns were down 3.3 per cent or 19p at 558p and 16½p or 3 per cent to 515½p respectively.

Clapham House said it would now open fewer restaurants than planned and concentrate its expansion on the GBK brand. It plans to open only 18 restaurants in the year to March 2009, of which 5 will be outside the UK. This would "substantially reduce" its growth expectations for the 2009 financial year. Analysts had been expecting about 30 UK openings in the 2009 financial year.

Sales in Tootsies, which the group had warned in September were weaker, had been exacerbated since by poor trading in the 11 restaurants sited in shopping and leisure centres. Clapham House said it attributed this to pressure on UK consumer spending. As a result, the contribution to profits from Tootsies was likely to be "significantly" below its budgets.

The group's plan to open a Real Greek and a GBK restaurant in the new Spitalfields Market development, on the edge of the City of London, had been delayed for 12 months by the landlord and would not open until well into the next financial year. Clapham House had been expecting the two to contribute £500,000 to current year operating profits.

The interest charge for the year would be £200,000 more than expected because of higher rates. Net debt at the end of September was £13.3m, higher than expected following the plans to open 21 GBK restaurants in the current financial year.

ScS Upholstery, a 100-year old furniture retailer, on Monday provided further evidence of a slowdown. It blamed the credit squeeze for a severe slowdown in consumer confidence.

Last week DSG International, the owner of retailers Currys and PC World, blamed a fall in the sales of white goods for a 25 per cent drop in underlying profits and Pendragon, the car dealership, also warned.