Briscoe sales bounce back in first quarter

Homeware and sporting goods retailer Briscoe Group made $173.1 million in sales in its first quarter, to May 2.

The retail chain, which operates Briscoes, Rebel Sport and Living & Giving stores, increased sales revenue by 78 per cent, up from the $97m recorded in the same quarter a year earlier.

The bumper quarter was a big turnaround from the first quarter of trade in 2020, which was hit by 33 days of store closures because of Covid-19 lockdowns.

Compared to the same quarter in 2019 — before Covid-19 — revenue in the latest period was up by about 15 per cent.

Sales in Briscoe’s homeware division increased by 81.4 per cent from 2020 to $104.6m, while its sporting goods sales increased by 74.1 per cent to $68.5m.

Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke, who is also the company’s largest shareholder, said increased consumer demand towards the end of last year had flowed through into the first quarter of the current financial year.

“Gross margin has also continued to be strong for the 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,” Duke said in an NZX trading update.

Despite the strong start to the year, Duke warned that the group was aware of “possible pressure on consumer spending” as outbound travel gradually returned.

But, he said, “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 $292.4m [revenue] reported for the first half of last year.”