NEW ZEALAND: Jewellery chain Michael Hill has claimed increased sales helped protect it from the worst of the global economic crisis.
In releasing its nine month trading update to the market earlier this week (April 06), figures provided by the Auckland headquartered company - which operates stores across New Zealand, the US, Canada and Australia - showed sales were up 9.9 per cent to $NZ314.9 million for the period ended March 31.
In Australia this meant the group finished the period with sales of $NZ206.6 million compared to $NZ187.6 million at the same time last year.
Sales in its New Zealand stores fell by 7.1 per cent to $NZ69.5 million. Its Canadian operations attracted $NZ27.8C million worth of sales compared to $NZ24.1 million at the same time last year.
Sales in the group's new market of the US, stood at $NZ10.9 million.
Group chairman Michael Hill described the result as "solid" but cautioned the sales results were achieved on lower margins as a result of increased sale activity in all markets "in an attempt to offset the difficult global retail environment".
In a statement Hill said the company’s management would continue to focus on cost reductions to offset the lower margins.
"The US continues to be a tough market to operate in and management is focused on improving the US business and establishing the brand."