German fashion house Hugo Boss has said it will not achieve its targeted profit margin by 2015, sending the group’s shares into a tailspin on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the company said that while it was sticking to a goal to reach operating profit margin of 25 per cent, it “assumed this goal will only be reached after 2015”.

In response, the group’s shares fell by more than 3.0 per cent on Frankfurt’s mid-cap MDAX index.

By afternoon, the shares had partially clawed back those losses and were down by 1.80 per cent.

At the end of October, Hugo Boss said it is pencilling in full-year sales growth this year of 6.0-8.0 per cent and a similar increase in operating profit, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.