Briscoe’s record profit growth

Briscoe groupThe Briscoe Group announced it generated growth of 16.9 per cent in net profit after tax over the last five years and posted a profit increase of 19.94 per cent to $47.14 million in the 53 weeks ended January 31, up from the previous year’s $39.3 million in the 52-week period ended January 25, 2015.

The Auckland-based company’s sales rose 9.04 per cent to $552.89 million. On a same store basis, and adjusting for an additional week’s trading in the latest year, sales increased 5.44 per cent.

Earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) increased 24.12 per cent from $53.12 million for 2014-15 to $65.94 million for the 2015-16 year.

“During March we were delighted to announce another year of significant growth and record profit for the Group, a performance we are very proud of given the challenging competitive environments encountered,” said company chair Dame Rosanne Meo.

“Central to our success has been the drive to continually improve all aspects of our business from initiatives to improve the efficiency and accuracy of receipting inventory instore, to the ongoing refinement of local and international product ranges, to the subtle promotional changes introduced to surprise and delight customers, to the store development program which ensures the necessary level of store rejuvenation, and to the IT and finance projects driven ‘behind-the-scenes’ to deliver competitive advantage through process and system improvements,” Meo said.

Managing director, Rod Duke, said the business will extend the retail and storage area at the Briscoes Homeware store in Dunedin in May, as well as establish additional online fulfilment facilities. A lease for an adjoining building has been secured to provide the extra space required, he said.

In July, the company plans to extend the storage capacity at Briscoes Homeware Te Rapa. “This store is one of our top performers and has seen growth constrained by limited storage capacity,” Duke said.

Duke said they will extend and refurbish the Briscoes Homeware store at Taranaki Street, Wellington by September/October. This project will see the central Wellington store increase retail area by approximately 20 per cent and will provide significant improvements to car parking and storeroom facilities.

Briscoe will pay a final dividend of 9.50 cents per share on March 31. The dividend is fully imputed and, when added to the interim dividend of 6.00 cents per share, brings the total dividend for the year to 15.50 cents per share, an increase of 10.71 per cent over last year’s total dividend of 14 cents per share.

On an adjusted same store sales basis, the homewares and sporting goods segments returned sales increases of 3.78 per cent and 8.73 per cent, respectively, for the year ended January 31.

Online sales accounted for 4.5 per cent of the company’s sales for the year.

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