Dark days behind as Michael Hill regains sparkle

MICHAEL Hill lifted sales almost 20 per cent in the last quarter while expanding margins and nearly doubling its online business, a year after the pandemic forced the jewellery retailer to close 15 stores.

In a statement to the ASX on Thursday, the company said samestore sales were up 16.4 per cent against the prior comparable period, and up 10.6 per cent against the same quarter in 2019.

Margins expanded by 200 basis points while online sales now represent 5.6 per cent of sales, compared with 2.9 per cent last year.

Overall store sales lifted 11.6 per cent to $118.5m in the quarter despite the loss of 2856 trading days due to temporary store closures, most notably in Canada, where more than half of the 86 locations were shuttered temporarily.

While all stores that closed temporarily later reopened and were trading at the end of the quarter on

March 28, COVID outbreaks have since forced intermittent closures in Canada and Queensland.

Michael Hill CEO Daniel Bracken said the results vindicated the group’s embrace of online sales and an omni-channel retail strategy.

“I’m delighted by these results, delivering further margin improvement and double-digit sales growth in all markets,” Mr Bracken said.

“Our strategic growth agenda underpins this performance as we accelerate digital innovation, embrace new ways to shop and elevate our brand.”

In the year to date, the company’s Australian stores have been the strongest performers.

In the 39 weeks to March 28 all Australian store sales lifted 5.5 per cent on the prior period to $245.2m. Sales at New Zealand stores lifted 3.7 per cent to $NZ97.2m ($90.02m) while Canadian store sales declined 4.4 per cent to $C95.5m ($98.84m).

Shares in the company closed up 5.7 per cent at 83c.