Super Retail Group has lifted first half profit 33.6 per cent on a strong performance from its auto, leisure and sports businesses.

The owner of Supercheap Auto, Rebel Sport and Rays Outdoors says net profit for the six months to December 26 was $44.9 million, up from $33.6 million for the same period last year.

“The strong performance of the Auto and Sports Divisions is reflective of the work we are doing to inspire and engage our customers, through investing in store refurbishment, extending our service offering, developing our on-line channels and focusing on more tailored marketing,” said Super Retail Group MD and CEO, Peter Birtles.

The company says underlying sales growth was ‘solid across the group’ with the auto, leisure and sports divisions delivering total sales growth of 6.1 per cent, 4.1 per cent and 7.2 per cent.

EBIT growth for the Auto and Sports Divisions was 10.2 per cent and 9.5 per cent.

The company declared a fully franked interim dividend of 20 cents, up from 18.5 cents last year.

“We are seeing improvements in shelf availability and lower stock levels resulting from our investment in supply chain capability,” said Birtles. “The resulting strong operating cash flow performance has supported our continued investment in new and refurbished stores as well as our supply chain and digital capability.”

The groups leisure retailing brand BCF recorded like for like sales growth of 3.1 per cent with divisional sales increasing 4.1 per cent to $302.3 million.

“We are now focused on sustaining the sales momentum of the BCF business while also improving gross margin through optimising product range and pricing,” said Birtles. “We are also extending the trial of the new format Rays stores.”

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