The Briscoe Group is expecting a half-year reported profit of at least $20 million, an 8% increase on last year's result of $18.5million, managing director Rod Duke says.
However, the profit would be a lift of 19% when adjusted for the business interruption insurance recovery booked last year and the costs incurred to date this year in relation to the takeover offer for and the acquisition of shares in Kathmandu Holdings.
The group yesterday released its unaudited sales for the 13-week period ended July 26 of $124.2million, an increase of 6.47% on the $116.7million reported in the previous corresponding period.
The group's homeware segment increased sales by 5.2% during the period and the sporting goods segment (Rebel Sports) grew by 9.22%.
On a same-store bases, homeware sales increased by 5.25% for the quarter while sports goods sales were 5.9% above last year.
Both gross margin dollars and percentages would finish significantly higher than for the first half of last year, Mr Duke said.
That reflected the strong sales performance in sporting goods and winter seasonal homeware products, the benefits being realised from the stock scanning project implemented last year throughout all the stores and continued improvements to supply chain processes.
''We are very pleased with the group's operational and financial results for the first half of the financial year.
''They represent a continuation of the excellent growth in performance we have been achieving in recent years.''
The group's bottom line was tracking well ahead of last year, despite the late start to winter and the high levels of competitiveness across the retailing sectors in which the group operated, he said.
The continued profit improvements flowed from the increasing sales and the group was generating at improved margins.
