The closure of Infinite Retail couldn't slow down the growth of Rebel, new figures from Super Retail Group shows.
Rebel posted 15% total sales growth for the 26-week period to 26 December, including the impact of the closure of Infinite Retail.
In FY20 Infinite Retail delivered $15.9 million of sales, representing a decline of $10.8 million on the prior comparable period, and was subsequently closed.
Meanwhile, Rebel continued on its growth trajectory, recording a 17% lift in like-for-like sales growth, while online sales jumped up 102% in the 26-week period.
Super Retail Group MD and CEO Anthony Heraghty puts the Group's strong results down to its omnichannel strategy.
"Since our last update to the market in October, the Group has continued to perform well.
"We are particularly pleased with our record online sales over the November cyber weekend and strong Christmas trading.
"The successful execution of the Group’s omni-retail business strategy and the effectiveness of our supply chain and inventory management have been instrumental in fulfilling large volumes of customer orders and delivering a strong result for the first 26 weeks of trading," he said.
Overall, digital sales drove strong growth for Super Retail Group in the period, with group online sales increasing by 87% to $237 million, representing 13% of total group sales.
Click and collect sales grew by 74% to $108 million, making up 45% of group online sales, strengthening the omnichannel strategy.
"The operating leverage which the Group has been able to achieve during a period of robust online sales growth clearly reinforces the profitability of our digital sales and, in particular, the scalability of our omni-retail platform," Heraghty added.
The company expects segment EBIT for the period to be between $253 million and $256 million.
The Group also expects to deliver Statutory NPAT of between $170 million and $173 million and Normalised NPAT of between $174 million and $177 million in the period.
The result excludes $1.7 million received in JobKeeper wage support which will be returned to the Australian Government.
The business is poised for the next trading period, ready to grow its market share, Heraghty finished.
"Strong cashflow generation leaves us well placed in the second half to reinvest in our brands to maintain our customer value proposition, expand and reward our customer base, consolidate our market-leading positions and grow our market share.
"As inventory levels are restored during the second half, following a period of unprecedented consumer demand, we expect the level of promotional activity to increase.
"While we remain cautious on the outlook for the second half given the uncertain economic environment, the Group has a resilient business model, underpinned by powerful brands with market-leading positions in growing lifestyle categories, an active customer base of 7.1 million loyalty club members and a conservative balance sheet with a strong cash balance and no net bank debt," he said.