Clicks boosts sales in 20-week period

BOOSTED by Christmas sales, heath and beauty retailer Clicks increased its sales by 13.6 percent in the 20 weeks to mid-January.

Chief executive David Kneale said yesterday the Clicks chain performed well in the current constrained consumer environment, showing volume growth of 4.2 percent, well ahead of most retailers.

“It is most encouraging that we continued to experience buoyant trading in the weeks after Christmas, driven mainly by value promotions across all of our product categories,” he said.

Clicks increased same store sales by 9.6 percent, with selling price inflation of 5.4 percent.

Kneale said customer behaviour continued to reflect a shift to shopping later in the festive season and Clicks experienced record trading days in the week leading up to Christmas.

Total retail sales for the Clicks Group increased by 12.2 percent and by 8.5 percent in comparable stores, with selling price inflation averaging 5.3 percent.

Total group turnover for the 20-week period grew by 8.6 percent to R10 billion.

UPD, the group’s pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution business, increased turnover by 6.4 percent, ahead of selling price inflation of 4.3 percent for the period.

Kneale said management was confident of Clicks maintaining its competitive market position through its value offer to customers and the continued expansion of the Clicks store and pharmacy footprint.

“This will be supported by the relative resilience of the health and beauty markets in which we trade,” he added.

Damon Buss, an equity analyst at Electus Fund Managers, said Clicks managed to grow retail sales by 9.6 percent like-for-like excluding new stores.

“It is still a decent performance by the company and the brand is showing a good volume growth over the period,” he said.

Buss added that Clicks’ numbers reflected a company that was ahead of other retailers but cautioned the company was behind its target of 12.2 percent sales growth for its full year.