Shares across the restaurant and pub sectors plummeted this morning as Clapham House, owner of the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and the Real Greek chains, and Regent Inns, which owns Walkabout and Old Orleans, both issued profit warnings.

Both groups blamed faltering consumer confidence and said economic uncertainty and higher interest rates are forcing consumers to rein in spending.

Clapham House said growth would be “significantly” below expectations for the current financial year and next, sparking a sell-off that drove its shares down 47 per cent to 133p.

It said its chain of eleven Tootsies restaurants, situated in shopping centres, had been particularly badly hit. A delay in the development of two key London restaurants would cost it £500,000. The company has scaled back restaurant openings from 30 to 18 due to the uncertain climate.

David Page, Clapham House's executive chairman, said: "There has been a marked change in footfall in shopping centres, and it’s not getting any better”.

Clapham House was updating the market before Wednesday's interim results, which it said would show underlying pre-tax profits up £300,000 at £1.5 million for the six months to the end of September.

Regent Inns said it was no longer confident of achieving growth in full-year pre-tax profit owing to the cautious consumer outlook, as well as the eventual effect of the smoking ban and England's failure to qualify for the European Championships next year. Its shares plunged 34.5 per cent to 28p this morning.

Regent saw a 2.8 per cent fall in like-for-like sales during the 21 weeks to November 24. It said this morning: "We believe [this] is reflective of overall growing consumer caution in the market. We were also frustrated by the failure of the England team to qualify for the 2008 European Football Championships in June next year."

Investors fear the warnings are symptomatic of a wider trend and that other companies will suffer, analysts said.

The Restaurant Group, the parent company of Frankie & Benny's and Garfunkel's, dived 12 per cent, while Italian chain Prezzo's shares slumped 9 per cent. The sell-off spread to blue chip leisure groups.

Mitchells & Butlers, down 4.68 per cent at 550p, and Enterprise Inns, off 4.23 per cent at 510p, were the FTSE 100's second and third biggest fallers this afternoon.

Whitbread fell 2.57 per cent to £14.04 and Punch Taverns dipped 1.71 per cent to 807p.

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