Duke expands his Briscoe empire

Briscoe chief Rod Duke dug into his pocket this week to snap up $655,000 of shares in the company as deputy Alaister Wall sold down his stake in the retail group.

Duke now owns more than 74 per cent of the shares in Briscoe Group, which runs the Briscoe and Rebel Sports retail chains.

At yesterday's closing share price of $1.31, Duke's stake in Briscoe is worth $206 million.

Duke snapped up 500,000 shares put on the market by deputy managing director Wall, who was coy on his reasons for selling.

"There's no particular reason, it's a personal decision," said Wall who, in a separate transaction on Thursday, bought 220,000 at $1 each as part of an option scheme to which he belongs. Several other Briscoe executives also converted options into shares this week.

Duke joins The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall as an entrepreneur whose wealth is largely made up of retail shareholdings.

The Warehouse and Briscoe face the looming Christmas selling season, during which retailers can accumulate a hefty proportion of annual sales.

Both listed retailers will be looking for sales growth to make up for a disappointing few months.

The two retailers were hit by sluggish third-quarter sales figures, which arrived as statistics from the Government showed the retail sector over all was thriving.

Briscoe saw sales drop about 3 per cent in the three months to October compared with the same period last year but homeware sales were up 3 per cent on a "same-store" basis.