Retail giant Specialty Fashion Group (SFG) has announced healthy half year revenue results, bolstered by a number of new store openings.
The company revealed a revenue figure of $261 million for the half year ended June 30, which represents a 5.7 per cent increase over the same period of the prior year. The results relate to the ongoing group, which excludes the Queenspark brand that was sold in October last year.
SFG attributed the positive sales growth to the raft of new stores it has progressively launched throughout 2011 and its innovative approach to the difficult retail environment.
The company, which operates 891 stores in Australia and New Zealand, opened 50 new stores across the region during the 2011 financial year, including 11 La Senza lingerie stores – the licensing for which they picked up in August 2010.
While comparable store sales for SFG were flat, the company said this was an improvement on the prior year's second half of negative 8.1 per cent. Full year revenue to June 30, 2011 was $574 million (ongoing group $570 million), a 0.3 per cent year-on-year.
However, SFH chief executive officer Gary Perlstein admitted the company has experienced challenging trading conditions throughput the year and had suffered increases where manufacturing costs of product were incurred in the second half of the year, as well as higher rental and wage costs.
“The downturn in consumer discretionary spend that we have seen over the past 18 months is unprecedented,” he said.
“In this situation where the consumer dollar is shrinking and inflation is rising, we recognise the need to be innovative and expansionary in our approach, in order to differentiate and grow our offer to our customers. We are gaining benefits through our product sourcing transformation and enhancement of our customer relationship management capabilities. Our roll-out of La Senza stores nationally is on track, finishing the year with 15 stores, as part of the group's portfolio of 891 stores across all [six] brands.”
SFG also noted in a statement this morning that the released figures are at this stage preliminary in nature, subject to finalisation within the company as well as review by the company's external auditors. Further details on full year results are to be provided by August 22, 2011.
The company, which currently holds a 10-year licensing deal to run lingerie chain La Senza, the sister brand of Victoria's Secret, recently launched a nationwide marketing campaign to boost brand awareness, including extensive outdoor activations, a nationwide competition, and the launch of an e-store to facilitate online sales.
As reported exclusively in Ragtrader's print edition (April 22) SFH also revealed that it intends to roll out 100 new La Senza stores in Australia within the next three years.