Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 2455S

Sports Direct International Plc

07 September 2010

 



7^th September 2010

Sports Direct International plc

Interim Management Statement

Sports Direct International plc ("the Company" or "the Group"), the UK's leading sports retailer, today announces its Interim Management Statement relating to the period from 26 April 2010 to 6 September 2010.  The Company will hold its Annual General Meeting in Shirebrook at 3pm today.

Current Trading Update

At the AGM, Dave Forsey, Chief Executive, will provide the following update on trading:

"Group total sales for the 13 weeks ending 25 July 2010 were up 8.8% to £408m (2010: £375m) and gross profit increased 17.8% to £185m (2010: £157m).

"Retail sales increased 11.6% year on year to £365m (2010: £327m), and retail gross profit increased 20.1% to £167m (2010: £139m).  Brands division revenue declined 6.5% to £43m (2010: £46m), but the corresponding gross profit was flat at £18m (2010: £18m).

"During the period, UK Retail has opened eight stores and closed two and this represents a mixture of new core, temporary and Field & Trek stores.  International retail opened one store in Cyprus.

"Despite the performance of the England team during the World Cup, these results clearly show that Sports Direct had a good World Cup, although with better team results it could have been even stronger.  

"Since the end of July, the Group's underlying performance has remained strong and in line with management's expectations, with the Group's debt reduction programme continuing to perform well.  At the preliminary results on 22 July 2010, we announced that for the year ended 25 April 2010 we had a net debt to underlying EBITDA ratio of 1.9 times. We also said that we would be targeting a range of between one and 1.5 times underlying EBITDA by April 2011.  We are pleased to report that we have already achieved this target.

"At the results, the Board also announced it was targeting full year underlying EBITDA of around £195m, after the £10m charge for the bonus share scheme.  Assuming there is no significant deterioration in economic conditions, the Board remains comfortable with this view."

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Sports Direct International plc Dave Forsey, Chief Executive Bob Mellors, Group Finance Director	T:  0845 129 9229
Financial Dynamics Jonathon Brill Caroline Stewart Alex Beagley	T:  0207 831 3113

 

END

 

 

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