Briscoe Group to pay back $ 11.5m subsidy

Briscoe Group will pay back the wage subsidy it received following the $ 27.9 million profit it turned in the first- half of its 2020 financial year.

The homeware and sporting goods company said it had made the decision after experiencing continued strong sales during the third quarter.

It received $ 11.5m in government wage subsidies across its businesses. This included $ 6,476,001.60 for 1073 staff in its Briscoes business and $ 866,011.20 for 124 head office staff.

Chairwoman Dame Rosanne Meo said the group’s continued sales momentum was a credit to “the team led by Rod Duke”.

Duke i s the company’s largest shareholder, holding a 78 per cent stake, and received $ 15.6m of the $ 20.3m interim dividend the group paid out in its first- half of FY20.

“The full extent of the lockdown was seen in our first quarter sales announced 1 May, which were down 35.6 per cent.

“The rebound over the following three months, however, was equally as remarkable enabling Briscoe Group to report a half year result that was broadly in line with our previous year,” Meo said in the NZX statement.

The group’s net profit in the six months to July 26 was barely dented by disruption caused by the Covid- 19 pandemic, and it paid out a 9 cents per share dividend to shareholders — an increase on last year’s

8.5c.

Its almost $ 28m profit was down a mere

1.3 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Briscoe said its retail staff were paid full salary during the lockdown periods.