Department store David Jones has beat rival Myer in the third quarter sales round, boasting its best performance in years.
The retailer today reported total sales revenue of $407.2 million for the third quarter of the 2014 financial year, for the period from January 26, 2014 to April 26, 2014.
The figure represents total sales growth of 4.1 per cent on the same period last year (3Q13: $391.1 million).
The company said results were bolstered by key categories of womenswear, menswear, beauty, shoes, accessories and homewares, all of which delivered positive sales growth.
All states delivered sales growth with the exception of South Australia which was adversely impacted by the refurbishment of the Adelaide Central Plaza store and Queensland which was impacted by the centre refurbishments of Garden City and Toowong Village.
Like-for-like (LFL) basis sales were also up, 2.4 per cent to $400.5 million, compared to $391.1 million in the third quarter of 2013.
The LFL sales number includes one and a half months of trade in the company’s new Highpoint (Vic) store which opened in mid March 2013 and excludes the new Malvern (Vic) store which opened in September 2013.
David Jones' online sales have also continued to grow quarter-on-quarter, delivering 190 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2014 versus the previous corresponding period.
Commenting on the positive quarter outcome, David Jones CEO and managing director Paul Zahra said the company is on a roll.
“We are pleased to report that we continued to see sales growth momentum in the third quarter of 2014. We experienced our third consecutive quarter of total sales growth and our second consecutive quarter of LFL sales growth this financial year.”