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Despite the latest rebound in sales Hellaby Holdings is being spurred on by shareholder rumbles and is stepping up the sale process for its shoe chains Hannahs and No 1 Shoe Warehouse.
Results for the three months to April 30 show total sales for the combined chains increased 5 per cent on a same store basis and 14.7 per cent overall.
Hellaby appears to have recovered from a slump in sales in the second quarter that contributed to a 52 per cent fall in interim profits and led to Hellaby forecasting a 20 per cent fall for the full year result.
Chief executive David Houldsworth said the improved result was not affecting its attitude to considering a sale.
"We are reviewing the shoe operations but it is not because there is anything wrong with them," he said.
Despite expectations and a move to the next stage of the sale process, Hellaby says it would only sell if it could deliver value to shareholders.
Houldsworth said he was "very close to providing more financial information" to more than six prospective buyers who had expressed "a strong and genuine interest" in the shoe chains.
The company would know in four to six weeks how it would approach the sale issue.
The interested parties included private equity and trade firms, mainly from Australia.
The process included Hannahs and No 1 Shoe Warehouse together, "which makes sense because combined they deliver 40 per cent of the market", Houldsworth said.
Hellaby has owned Hannahs for 10 years and bought 80 per cent of No 1 Shoe Warehouse in 2004.
It has obligations to pick up the remaining 20 per cent in August.
Houldsworth said Hellaby had run the two chains separately and would continue to do so were it to keep them.
The book value retail assets are estimated at $94 million.
