BRAMBLES shares plunged to a record low yesterday after the company cut profit guidance for its biggest business unit, its US pallet operations.

Brambles said it expected its comparable operating profit for the year to June 30, 2009 to be "broadly in line" with last year's $US1.047 billion ($1.63 billion) after revenue growth of 4 per cent in the first four months of the year fell short of some expectations.

In August, Brambles had said it was well placed to deliver another year of profit growth in 2008-09 from its Chep pallet pooling operations and Recall information management arm.

The firm's "operating environment had been challenging, due to the rapid deterioration of the world's leading economies, and may remain so through 2009 and possibly beyond, particularly in the US and Europe", chairman Graham Kraehe told shareholders at the annual meeting.

Brambles shares were down 8.3 per cent at $6.61 as investors digested the change in profit guidance. They earlier hit $6.36, a record low since the company was relisted in December 2006 following a restructure, and the lowest the company has traded since September 2004.

Mr Kraehe said operating profit from Brambles' key Chep Americas division was expected to fall by 10 per cent this financial year due to the rapid economic slowdown in the US, but would be offset by the performance of operations across the other 45 countries in which it operated.

The US pallet business would also be hurt by $US30 million in previously announced costs relating to a change in its contractual arrangements with Wal-Mart Stores, and increased investment in "quality" initiatives, Mr Kraehe said.

Brent Mitchell, an analyst at Shaw Stockbroking in Melbourne, said the loss of some key operational people in recent years had led some investors lose confidence in management.

"People have been a bit wary of Brambles and the way they've handled some things recently have been terrible, especially the Wal-Mart issue," Mr Mitchell said.

Chep spent $US25.1 million last year on a range of quality and innovation initiatives aimed at increasing automation across its pallet pooling operations, as part of a planned $US100 million expenditure over two years.

Mr Kraehe said sales for the four months to October were up 4 per cent on a like-for-like basis, helped by "modest" volume growth and favourable mix and price outcomes.

In the first four months of fiscal 2009, revenues rose by 4 per cent across Chep in the Americas and Europe, 3 per cent in Asia-Pacific and 6 per cent in its Recall information management business.

"Some of those revenue growth numbers could have been a little bit stronger," an analyst said.