Briscoe (NZX:BGP ASX:BGP) announces half year results, increases dividend payout

Highlights

• Briscoe announced its 1H results today
• The group reported total sales of NZ$367.95 million, up 2.66%
• Online sales also increased 22.93%

Briscoe Group (NZX:BGP, ASX:BGP) announced its half-year results today. The group was able to deliver good results despite significant headwinds faced by the retail sector, e.g. the Omicron surge during the early part of the year, the rising cost of living, and the most recent second Omicron wave.

The Group was able to achieve total sales of NZ$367.95 million, up 2.66% over pcp. Online sales increased by 22.93%. The net profit after tax was down 3.88% to NZ$45.62 million.

BGP is very pleased with its performance and Rod Duke,  Group Managing Director, said that to produce an NPAT only slightly below the record first half profit of last year is "very good". This is considering the impact on the shopping centre footfalls in the first part of the year. 

The earnings were on the back of sales revenue of NZ$367.95 million, which was an increase of 2.66% over pcp.

           Source: © 2022 Kalkine Media®

The Group has taken several initiatives in inventory management and for that it involved the consultancy firm, KPMG, which helped it with inventory ordering processes. Its an ongoing project. Beside the BGP received a dividend of NZ$1.44 million from its investment in KMD Brands Limited compared to NZ$0.96 million for the same period last year.  Its homeware sales increased 2.74% and sporting goods sales grew 2.51%.

As per the update, the group's online business continued to perform exceedingly well and the Company plans to invest in its online platforms.  However, during the period online team introduced a range of features including the ability to shop product collections, improved mobile navigation and enhanced product content.

Dividend payout

It announced an interim dividend of 12.00 cps which was an increase from 11.50 cps last year.  Record date for the dividend is 21 September and the payment date is 12 October.  The company’s dividend policy is to pay out at least 60% of NPAT when calculated on a full year basis.

Outlook for second half

The Group claims significant opportunity in the second half of the year despite the uncertain economic environment. It sees the third quarter to be better than the same period last year. The August 2021 period was impacted by National Alert levels 4 and 3 which led to store closures. According to the company release, given the solid performance in the first half and good start to the second half, BGP expects to deliver NZ$87.91 million NPAT. The third quarter update will be after the close of the third quarter, after 30 October 2022.

The stock was trading flat at NZ$5,350, at the time of writing.