Sports Direct International, the UK’s leading sports retailer, today announces its Interim Management Statement relating to the period from April 26, 2010 to September 6, 2010. The company will hold its Annual General Meeting in Shirebrook at 3pm today.
Current Trading Update
At the AGM, Dave Forsey, Chief Executive, will provide the following update on trading:
“Group total sales for the 13 weeks ending July 25, 2010 were up 8.8% to £408m ($637 mm) (2010: £375m) and gross profit increased 17.8% to £185m ($289 mm) (2010: £157m).
“Retail sales increased 11.6% year on year to £365m ($571 mm) (2010: £327m), and retail gross profit increased 20.1% to £167m ($261 mm) (2010: £139m). Brands division revenue declined 6.5% to £43m ($67 mm) ( (2010: £46m), but the corresponding gross profit was flat at £18m ($28 mm) (2010: £18m).
“During the period, UK Retail has opened eight stores and closed two and this represents a mixture of new core, temporary and Field & Trek stores. International retail opened one store in Cyprus.
“Despite the performance of the England team during the World Cup, these results clearly show that Sports Direct had a good World Cup, although with better team results it could have been ever stronger.
“Since the end of July, the Group’s underlying performance has remained strong and in line with management’s expectations, with the Group’s debt reduction programme continuing to perform well. At the preliminary results on 22 July 2010, we announced that for the year ended 25 April 2010 we had a net debt to underlying EBITDA ratio of 1.9 times. We also said that we would be targeting a range of between one and 1.5 times underlying EBITDA by April 2011. We are pleased to report that we have already achieved this target.
“At the results, the Board also announced it was targeting full year underlying EBITDA of around £195m, after the £10m charge for the bonus share scheme. Assuming there is no significant deterioration in economic conditions, the Board remains comfortable with this view.”
