Listed health and beauty retailer New Clicks Holdings has reported an 11% rise in its sales for the four months from September 1 to December 31 2003, compared with the year-earlier period.
Christmas sales were buoyant, with turnover for the month of December up 13% year-on-year (y/y), the group announced on Thursday in a trading update.
The New Clicks group includes the store brands Clicks, Discom, Musica, CD Wherehouse and The Body Shop.
New Clicks said that Clicks had posted an 11,9% increase in overall sales, with comparable store growth at 7,1%. Selling price inflation was approximately 2,7%, indicating a high level of real growth in the brand. Clicks had also passed on the benefits of the strengthening rand to consumers.
The lifestyle category in Clicks, under pressure from strong competition in the past year, was showing the early signs of a turnaround with an encouraging 13,8% growth over the four months, and a 15,8% improvement for December, the group added. The recovery of the lifestyle merchandise range was also evident in Discom, where overall sales grew by 15,7%, aided by the 20% growth in lifestyle.
Comparable store sales growth at Discom was 10,2%, and selling price inflation for the brand was approximately 3%. Discom also showed strong real growth in December, lifting sales by 16,9%.
The music division delivered an unexpectedly disappointing performance, with comparable store growth at 2,2% and 3,4% growth for all stores. While the division has until now been fairly resilient to the general slowdown in CD sales internationally, this was now having an impact on the local market.
The Body Shop increased sales by 10,3%, although comparable store growth declined by 11,1%, indicating that the initial novelty value of the brand was now bedding down and finding its own level. However, this had already been anticipated, and the overall performance of the brand remains strong.
New Clicks Australia, which trades under the Priceline, Priceline Pharmacy, Price Attack and House brands, increased sales by 14,8% in Australian dollars and 1% in rand terms over the previous period. Sales for December were up 15,6% (Aus$) and 6,5% (rand).
New Clicks last week announced the sale of its Australian business to a consortium of private equity investors. NCA will be incorporated in the New Clicks results until December 31 2003.
If the Australian operations are included in the sales figures, the group’s total sales growth for the September-December period was 8%, while comparable store growth was 3,5%.
In the company’s pharmacy wholesale distribution operations, UPD, turnover was up 2,2% for the four months compared to the previous year, the group said.
UPD had lost some business when it was acquired by New Clicks in 2003, but this had largely been replaced by growth in business from the group’s own pharmacy operations, comprising Purchase Milton & Associates (PM&A) and other independent pharmacies.
Sales in PM&A, the network of 80 pharmacies that will be acquired by New Clicks once the transfer of the licences has been approved, were flat compared to the corresponding period. The sales and profitability of the PM&A group were expected to improve once it was integrated into Clicks, after licence approvals have been granted. — I-Net Bridge