Briscoe Group told the sharemarket this morning it had recorded a third consecutive quarter of sales growth, and then set out figures showing just how slight that growth is. Second quarter sales for the 13 weeks to 26 July came in at $193.4 million, up 0.25 percent on the same quarter last year. Across the full first half of 26 weeks, group sales reached $374.2 million, up 0.79 percent.
Those are the numbers in the company’s market update lodged with the NZX at 9.37am. On a base of nearly $400 million, a quarter of a percent is close to a rounding error. It is also, in the current retail climate, not nothing.
Group managing director Rod Duke framed it that way. “We’re pleased to report a third consecutive quarter of positive sales growth despite economic conditions remaining challenging,” he said in the announcement.
The more revealing part of the update is the split between the group’s two halves. Rebel Sport and the rest of the sporting goods business grew sales 4.84 percent in the quarter and 2.56 percent across the half. Briscoes Homeware went the other way, down 2.17 percent in the quarter and down 0.30 percent for the half. The company put the homewares softness down to a milder start to winter and continued pressure on discretionary spending, and attributed the sporting goods strength to a run of major sporting events. The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have run through the back end of the reporting period.
That pattern lines up with what the wider spending data has been showing. Bed linen, duvets, couches and kitchenware are the sorts of purchases households defer when money is tight, and they are tied to people moving house, which fewer New Zealanders are doing. Sports gear rides on events and school seasons and is harder to put off when a teenager outgrows a pair of boots.
The figure that matters most for shareholders sits further down the release. Briscoe expects reported net profit after tax of not less than $27 million for the first half. Last year the group reported $29.31 million for the equivalent 26 weeks, itself down 11.8 percent on the year before that. If the result lands on the floor the company has set, profit will be roughly 8 percent lower again, on higher sales.
Some of that squeeze is deliberate spending. The company is carrying the running costs of a new distribution centre at Drury and an SAP S/4HANA systems replacement, offset in part by a lease accounting benefit. Briscoe said the strategic investments should deliver substantial benefits this year and next. Gross profit percentage is expected to land about 57 basis points below last year, which the company noted is a smaller fall than the 115 basis point decline recorded in the 2025 financial year. Inventory is running about $1 million below last year.
Set the sales figures against inflation and the picture sharpens. Stats NZ recorded annual inflation of 4.1 percent in the June 2026 quarter, driven largely by petrol up 27.5 percent and diesel up 71 percent. Strip fuel out and the rate was 2.9 percent. A homewares and sporting goods retailer does not face the household basket exactly, but on either measure a nominal sales increase of 0.79 percent means the group sold meaningfully less stuff than it did a year ago. Against the headline rate the fall in real terms is somewhere around 3 percent.
That is the gap worth watching in New Zealand retail at the moment. Confidence surveys have been improving. Consumer confidence reached a five month high in July, and business confidence climbed 19 points in the same month. What people tell a survey taker about the year ahead and what they put through a till are two different things, and Briscoe’s quarterly sales are as close to a live reading of the second as the sharemarket gets.
The card spending data has been telling the same story. Retail card spending fell 1.4 percent in June, a drop of $98 million on May, with apparel down 2 percent and hospitality down 1.2 percent while fuel spending rose 7.3 percent. Households are spending more to fill the tank and less on everything that is optional.
Housing is the other drag on the homewares side. House values fell again in July in what has become the longest downturn in decades, and a slow property market means fewer people buying the new bed, the new outdoor setting and the new set of pots that come with a shift.
Online is the one part of the business growing faster than the whole. Group online sales rose 2.07 percent in the half, an increase of $1.5 million, and now make up 19.60 percent of total group sales, up from 19.36 percent a year ago. “Our online business continues to perform well with Group online sales increasing 2.07%, representing first-half growth of $1.5 million,” Duke said. The company has also launched a Rebel Club loyalty rewards programme during the period.
Briscoe Group remains one of the more consistently profitable retailers on the NZX. In the year to 25 January 2026 it posted record total sales of $798.8 million and net profit after tax of $59.2 million. Investors have still marked the stock down, with the shares trading around $4.60 in recent sessions against a 52 week high of $6.07.
The full first half result, including the interim dividend, is due on 16 September. Last year the board paid 10 cents a share at the half. The dividend has been one of the reasons income investors hold the stock, and whether it holds at that level while profit slides for a second year will be the question in September.
For now the update reads as a company holding its ground rather than gaining any. Three quarters of growth in a row is a genuine turn after a long stretch of decline, and the margin erosion is slowing. But growth of a quarter of a percent in a year when prices rose 4.1 percent is not a recovery in trading conditions. It is a well run retailer keeping its footing while its customers count their money.
The next real test comes in the run to Christmas, the quarter that decides Briscoe’s year. If wage growth catches up with prices and the interest rate picture settles, the group has the store network and the balance sheet to make the most of it. If households keep putting off the new couch, another flat year is the likely outcome.
Have you cut back on household spending this year, or are you finding a bit more room in the budget? Tell us what you are seeing in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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