New Zealand's Postie Plus Group has improved its net earnings - despite the challenging retail environment.
The family-focused clothing group, which operates Postie, Babycity and school uniform business SchoolTex, has revealed its results for the year ending July 31 2011.
Net profit after tax (NPAT),
attributable to shareholders, increased by 58.7 per cent.
The 2011
NPAT was $656,000, compared to $415,000 in 2010.
Revenue was $115.730 million, compared to $113.774 million in 2010, an increase of 1.72 per cent.
Earnings before interest and tax in 2011 were $1.073 million, compared to $781,000 in 2010, which is an increase of 37.39 per cent.
Chairman Richard Punter said adverse events such as natural disasters and historically high temperatures during the important winter months had affected trade.
“Our trading year had distinct promise of a solid year, with Postie yet again making market share gains in a sector that has been flat for the last two years,” Punter said.
“However, the ongoing economic uncertainty has seen consumers inclined to commit more to savings than to personal spending on clothing.”
Product labels within the 79 Postie stores include Pilgrim, Concept, Spirit, Isobella, Demure and Who's Henri?
Punter said that despite the uncertainty generated by certain events, the results provide encouraging confirmation that the group locked in previous efficiency gains and made further improvements in the cost of doing business.
The board’s strategy to refresh the group’s core brand, Postie, also strongly improved the chain’s impact.