Michael Hill registers slight lift in sales over Nov, Dec

Michael Hil chief executive Danel Bracken. Photo / Supplied

Australasian jewellery retailer Michael Hill International said it registered sales increases over November and December - the most important months of its trading year.

The company said group revenues from continued operations and same-store sales increased by 2.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively, during the combined months.

Michael Hill said its second-quarter group revenues from continued operations and same-store sales fell by 1.3 per cent 2.9 per cent, respectively, showing significant improvement on the first quarter performance of declines of 8.8 and 11 per cent.

Chief executive Daniel Bracken said the company's performance over November and December was encouraging, adding a "refined approach" to the company's event and promotional activities resulted in a lift in sales during the two busiest months.

"This was a good outcome in a challenging retail environment and demonstrated the capability and cohesion of the executive and retail management team," he said in a statement to the ASX.

"This growth to end the quarter shows we have a strong platform on which to build and gives us confidence to continue to implement our strategy to become a globally relevant leader in the premium jewellery category," he said.

"While we are buoyed by the positive shift in sales momentum, we remain focused on strengthening the business in 2019 as we continue to evolve our strategy."

Bracken took over the reins as chief executive in November last year.

In an interview with the Herald he said his first few weeks in the job consisted of ensuring all systems and staff were in check for a successful Christmas trading period.

After the Christmas trading period, he said he would be focused on modernising the jewellery business, and boost the company's share price.

"Once we've got the foundations right, then we can start to look to whether we want to go into new markets, whether we want to go beyond the Michael Hill brand and have other brands in our portfolio and other channels we might we want to work in, but we've got to get the baseline of the business healthy - that's my priority and focus certainly for the next two years," he said.

Michael Hill's share price is trading at around 64 cents.