Dick Smith has bucked retail conditions with an increase in sales and profit for the half-year, despite challenging conditions for electronics retailers.
The retailer managed a $56.8 million year-on-year increase in sales to $693.8 million for the six months ending 31 December 2014.
Net profit after tax was also up, though only slightly, from $25 million to $25.2 million.
Both Dick Smith and rival JB Hi-Fi have described conditions as “challenging”. Today’s Dick Smith earnings announcement cited “tougher” Australian conditions.
Chief executive officer Nick Abboud said the result was achieved in the face of an increasingly competitive environment.
“Achieving this result is particularly pleasing given that independent industry data from GFK suggests that throughout Australia consumer electronics were flat in terms of total sales,” he stated.
Dick Smith’s small profit increase was in contrast to JB Hi-Fi, which saw profit decline despite an increase in revenue.
JB Hi-Fi grew sales by almost $30 million to $1.96 billion, but reported a small fall in net profit after tax from $90.3 million to $88.5 million.
Dick Smith is seeing growth via its online channel, with web sales reaching 7 percent of retail sales in the six-month period.
The retailer also continues to grow its store network including new Move by Dick Smith stores in Sydney International airport terminal, which opened today.
The company’s private label also now accounted for 12 percent share of total sales during the half.
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