Briscoe enjoys growth - at last

After five straight quarters of falling same-store sales, retailer Briscoe Group has finally generated growth from its Briscoes Homeware and Rebel Sports chains.

The company reported a 10.8 per cent jump in sales to $74.6 million in the three months to April 30, from $67.3 million in the same quarter the previous year.

Significantly, after stripping out the effects that opening new stores had on the figures, Briscoe sales were up 5.76 per cent, prompting some to suggest the company may have turned a corner.

"Put it this way: I didn't think it could get any worse," said a fund manager, who believed the worse of the decline in same-store sales had been seen. Briscoes Homeware sales rose 7.8 per cent to $48.7 million while Rebel Sports sales leapt more than 17 per cent to $25.8 million. Both reported increased same store sales, of 3.9 per cent and 9.4 per cent respectively.

Others were keen to see more evidence before declaring a corner had been turned. Forsyth Barr analyst Jeremy Simpson said the prior period had been weak and figures volatile. "It looks like they are making some improvements but it is still volatile," he said.

He said the latest sales figures were better than expected while others said the improvement was earlier than expected.

Briscoe chief financial officer Geoff Scowcroft said the company wanted to get another quarter under its belt before it trumpeted a turnaround.

"We're really positive and we're really happy with this, but we know how quickly this market can turn."

Once the first half was over, the company would have a good indication of whether the rise would continue - but internally executives believed it would.

One theory in the market was that sales had been hurting because some of the discretionary income Briscoe had enjoyed in the past was going to bigger ticket items. "With less confidence around on buying those bigger ticket items, we may see some of that come back to us," said Scowcroft.

He believed the improvement came from a combination of factors, including the sponsorship of the Super 12 naming rights gaining traction and the strategy adopted last year of reducing reliance on sales by cutting their frequency and, in some cases, the depth of discounts. Inventory had also been put in order.