Briscoe lifts fourth quarter sales with aggressive discounts   29 Jan 2015

Briscoe Group lifts fourth quarter sales with aggressive discounting

By Fiona Rotherham

Jan. 29 (BusinessDesk) - Briscoe Group, which operates the Briscoes, Rebel Sports, and Living & Giving chains, said sales rose 2.9 percent to $167.4 million in its fourth quarter despite tough trading conditions that led to aggressive discounting.

For the 13 week ended Jan. 25, homeware sales rose just over 1 percent to $113.1 million while sporting goods sales lifted 7 percent to $54.3 million. That resulted in unaudited sales for the year of $507.1 million, an increase of 4.9 percent, mainly led by a boost in revenue from Rebel Sports. On a same-store basis, group sales for the year rose 4.8 percent.

Managing Director Rod Duke, who has denied recent speculation he would make a takeover bid for the troubled Pumpkin Patch chain, said he was satisfied with the sales, margins and overall performance for the final quarter of the year in a market which continues to be driven by aggressive promotional activity.

“Just how tough trading conditions have been is clear from recent announcements by other listed retailers," he said. "Our trading was subdued through November and during the lead up to Christmas but it revived significantly post-Christmas and throughout January.”

Duke said last year’s fourth quarter for the group was particularly strong with same-store sales growth of more than 7 percent, so it was pleasing to produce growth of about 3 percent for the same quarter this year.

Online sales are continuing to take a bigger portion of the pie finishing 50 percent up on the previous year. Duke said there was considerable potential for on-going growth in online sales and it was continuing to look at ways to deliver that.

Full-year net profit is expected to be no less than $39 million, which would be an increase of about 16 percent over last year’s reported $33.6 million. The final full-year audited result is likely to be reported on March 5.

Briscoe Group shares fell 0.3 percent to $2.99 and have gained 1 percent this month.

(BusinessDesk)

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