Business

Coupon cut clips Coach

Leather goods maker Coach suffered a sharp slowdown in quarterly sales growth after an ill-timed move to eliminate coupons at its outlet stores just as the economy weakened.

The results drove Coach shares down nearly 19 percent, their worst single-day drop since just after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Sales at North American stores open at least a year rose 1.7 percent during the quarter that ended June 30, well below what Wall Street was expecting.

The company said the slowdown at its outlets, its biggest source of revenue, accounted entirely for the sluggish numbers.

“An increasingly promotional environment in North America led to slower growth,” CEO Lew Frankfort told analysts, noting that shoppers’ appetite for coupons was “insatiable.”