Substantial dividend increase for group

The Briscoe Group yesterday declared a substantially improved dividend as the retailer enjoyed the benefits of a key restructuring programme put in place in the past year.

The group reported an after-tax profit of $21.03 million for the 12 months ended January 31, up nearly 81% on the previous corresponding period.

The final dividend of 5c per share is 30% higher than the 3.5% declared last year.

The total dividend for the year is 7c per share, 71% of the after-tax profit.

Earnings before interest and tax increased 99.3% to $30.12 million from $15.11 million in the previous corresponding period.

Sales revenue from ordinary activities increased 7.3% to $416.7 million.

Group managing director Rod Duke was understandably pleased with the result.

"We are proud of the recovery we achieved in a market environment of continued global economic uncertainty and only a partial recovery in overall retail spending in New Zealand."

The group was continuing to derive benefits from the key strategic and structural initiatives recently put in place.

In particular, the result benefited from the positive ways store management and staff had accepted and responded to the operational structure introduced at the beginning of the financial year and to the cost and inventory management improvements made during the second half of the year, he said.

Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said the result was so well received by the market that there were no trades immediately after the announcement.

"There was an expectation this was going to be a reasonable result and because of that, a lot of share price movements had happened earlier.

"If they hadn't delivered an exceptional result, the shares would have been sold through the floor so you can say this is a very positive outcome for the group."

Increasing the dividend would be well received.

Mr Timms said changing each store into a "profit centre" had obviously helped the group through tough trading conditions, but he likened the improved profit to the Restaurant Brands example last week.

Restaurant Brands also provided a good result to the market and Mr Timms believed people were still prepared to treat themselves, but at a step down from restaurants.

KFC and Pizza Hut were seen as suitable alternatives during tight times.

The same could be said with Briscoe Group.

"People want to do the same things but are going about them in different ways.

"Instead of going to a kitchen supply shop for the branded electric fry pan, they are going to buy one at Briscoes."

The Briscoe Group result came from the changes it had made and the group's ability to react to the market in which it traded, he said.

It was not saddled with debt and had $59 million in cash with a strong cash flow at a time others were struggling with over capitalisation.

"All in all, this is a good result," Mr Timms said.

His comments were borne out by Mr Duke who said the results incorporated a less than satisfactory performance by the specialty homeware Living & Giving stores, which operated in a highly discretionary sector that had been severely affected by the economic downturn.

The group also owns the Rebel Sport stores, in New Zealand.

"Although the economic indicators are still difficult to read, we are cautiously optimistic that will continue to build on the improvements in operating and financial performance we made through 2009-10," Mr Duke said.