At its Annual General Meeting, Blacks Leisure provided an update on its performance over the first 20 weeks of the current financial year. Total Group sales increased by 2.6%. Comp sales fell by 1.0% in the same period, (2005: -2.0%). The company stated that the World Cup has had a significant negative impact on Group sales in June and early July, as well as the the lack of the “Glastonbury festival” and the continued dry weather.
The Group’s overall gross margin is at the same level as the same period last
year reflecting the investment made in maintaining our price competitiveness.
The current retail market remains challenging. We expect to see an early
improvement in performance for the balance of this half to 31st August covering
our key camping and hiking season, with Blacks in particular recovering well
post the World Cup. However we now expect the profit result for the first half
to be below that of last year.
Despite the challenging environment so far this year the Board of Directors
continues to believe that its strategy of focusing on its leading positions in
Outdoor and Boardwear underpins prospects for the year as a whole. The second
half in particular will benefit from the continued roll out of new exclusive
product, improved availability as a result of the new warehouse and improved
operational efficiency from investment in technology and people.
In Outdoor, Millets now trades from 286 stores and Blacks Outdoor from 101
stores, including seven Out of Town stores. In Boardwear, Freespirit now
operates from 47 stores and ONeill 15 stores. These numbers include 2 new
openings since the start of the year together with conversions between the
fascias.
