Investors’ patience may be about to run out with Aryzta. The shares, which have fallen from highs of €70 in March 2015, are now down more than 60% and were trading around €27 on Wednesday. The most recent cut saw €1.2bn knocked off the value of the company that was spun out from IAWS almost 10 years ago.

The company had enjoyed success up until recently but a combination of what investors saw as non-core acquisitions, slowing sales as a result of contract losses, and a struggling US market have raised questions about the future direction of the company.

In a profit warning released this week, the bakery company behind Cuisine de France said that profits for the first five months of trading up until the end of December 2016 were 20% behind the previous year.

And the Swiss-based company is expecting profits to track down by a similar amount for the full year. It is blaming the under-performance largely on its North American business, which has been challenged for a number of quarters.

It appears that Aryzta misjudged the impact of expanding its Otis Spunkmeyer brand of cookies and baked goods in the US.

The company wanted to grow its share of its own branded goods, since those products are more profitable than those it produces on behalf of other companies. About one-third of Aryzta’s North American sales come from its own branded goods.

But when Aryzta became a direct competitor with its contract customers, many customers cancelled orders.

In 2014, Aryzta ramped up its US presence when it paid €730m ($1bn) for Pineridge and Cloverhill bakeries in a move Owen Killian, CEO said at the time, would “shift the company into more relevant convenience channels”.

Cloverhill in particular was acquired with the objective of unlocking the Otis Spunkmeyer brand into retail.

On this week’s announcement, he said: “The performance in the current period is both unexpected and extremely disappointing. I’m both embarrassed and angry that we’re in this position. The timing of this setback is most unfortunate as we were navigating a fragile recovery.”

Shareholders have also questioned the company’s decision in 2015 to plough €446m into a 49% stake in high-end French frozen retailer Picard. Aryzta has said that Picard is performing very well. The company is aware of investor discontent on the stake, and the board was reviewing its investment strategy relating to joint ventures.

Aryzta has a call option to acquire the remainder of Picard in a three year-period starting in 2018.

In December, Gary McGann, the former chief executive of Aer Lingus and Smurfit Kappa, was appointed chair to try steady the ship and get the business back on track. Last year, it also offloaded its 68% share in Origin Enterprises.