Briscoe Group Ltd of New Zealand reported sales at its Rebel Sports stores increased by 10.91 percent to NZ$46.7 million in the fiscal first quarter ended April 26, compared with the year earlier quarter.
Same-store sales at the full-line sporting goods retail chain increased 8.44 percent ahead of last year. Briscoe operated 33 Rebel Sports stores in New Zealand at the end of the period, including two opened since the fiscal first quarter of 2014.
Group Managing Director Rod Duke said both the Briscoe's Homeware segment and its Sporting Goods segment generated higher gross margins compared with the same quarter of last year. He attributed the improvement to inventory management, the impact of new stock receipting technology introduced to all stores last year, more effective marketing, and the continued refinement of the quality and breadth of local and international product ranges.
Briscoe also benefited from foreign exchange hedges taken out last year when the New Zealand dollar was significantly stronger against the U.S. dollar. Duke said the Group has carried out extensive analysis and modeling simulations of various price-cost-quantity scenarios to assist us to optimise margin opportunities and manage challenges as they arise.
“Briscoe Group has made a very positive start to the current financial year," Duke continued. "Increased sales and margin performance across both homeware and sporting goods has resulted in Group profit tracking ahead of last year.”
