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- Briscoe Group (BGP) has updated the market on its first quarter sales to May 2
- The holding company comprises retail stores Briscoe’s Homeware, Living & Giving and Rebel Sport throughout New Zealand
- Unaudited sales for quarter one came in at $173.1 million, representing a 78.4 per cent increase on the same period last year
- Briscoe attributes the sizeable discrepancy to COVID-19, which negatively impacted the group’s sales in the same quarter last year
- Even so, the company recorded increased sales on the same period in 2019
- Managing Director Rod Duke says he is confident half-year sales will be comfortably ahead of those for 2020
- Briscoe Group shares last traded at 4.05 cents each
Briscoe Group (BGP) has updated the market on its first quarter sales to May 2, 2021.
The holding company comprises retail stores Briscoe’s Homeware, Living & Giving and Rebel Sport throughout New Zealand.
BGP’s unaudited sales for quarter one came in at $173.1 million, representing a 78.4 per cent increase on the $97 million achieved in the same period last year.
Briscoe attributes the sizeable discrepancy to COVID-19, which it says “significantly negatively impacted” sales last year during 33 days of store closures amid a national lockdown.
Offering a more relevant comparison, the company says its sales from quarter one this year represent a 14.3 per cent increase on the same period in 2019.
Notably, the group’s homeware segment increased by 81.4 per cent in quarter one compared to the same quarter last year, and 15.3 per cent compared to 2019.
Sporting goods sales also increased.
Briscoe Group Managing Director Rod Duke commented on the upwards trends.
“The increased consumer demand experienced towards the end of last year has continued through into this first quarter, ” Rod said.
“Gross margin has also continued to be strong for [Briscoe Group], delivering ahead of expectations.
“The massive disruption to trading from Covid-19 enabled us to implement improvements to the way in which we analyse and construct our promotional activity and also to how we process and manage the flow of inventory through the business.”
The managing director acknowledged that with international travel off the cards, some of the retail spend experienced during the last 12 months likely came from redirected travel funds.
“Whilst we do not expect to deliver the same significant increase in sales for the second quarter as achieved in this first quarter, we are confident that sales for the half-year will be comfortably ahead of the $292.4 million reported for the first half of last year,” he said.
Briscoe Group shares are in the grey, last trading at $4.05 at 1:37 pm AEST.
