The McCann brothers, Carl and David, showed their faith in Fyffes by buying 150,000 shares each last week at an option price of €1.23. But now the company's own broker, Davy, has taken not just a scalpel but a slash hook to its forecasts for Fyffes' profits and earnings over the next few years.

It's all turned a bit sour for Fyffes, which was the darling of the market for the first couple of months of the year, until the dot.com lustre became a bit worn and the group's a.g.m. was hit with a shocker of a profits warning.

As broker, one must assume that Davy knows the company pretty well, so cutting the 2000 profits forecast from €91.1 million to €67.7 million and the 2001 forecast from €98.6 million to €75.5 million should be treated seriously.