Christmas sales better than expected for Noni B

Mid-market women's fashion retailer Noni B has upgraded its half-year profit guidance after seeing better than expected Christmas sales.

The group, which also owns the Millers, Katies, Rivers, Crossroads, Autograph, Rockmans and W.Lane brands, said on Thursday morning that like-for-like sales grew 1 per cent in December.

Noni B said December sales were better than expected.

That allowed it to limit the fall in like-for-like sales (a measure which removes the impact of opening or closing stores) for the six months to December 30 to 3.1 per cent.

Noni B had previously said it expected sales to fall 5 per cent for the period. Investors hailed the news sending Noni B's share price up 9.6 per cent to close at $2.74.

Its December performance is in contrast to adventure retailer Kathmandu, which last week reported that a weak December sales period would see its half-year sales slip by 0.2 per cent, wiping out the 7.1 per cent growth seen up to early November.

Kathmandu's warning sent a chill through the entire apparel sector, with fears it was a sign that shoppers had kept their wallets shut during the busiest month of the year, and sparked a sell-off of several ASX-listed retailers.

Noni B said that thanks to the sales bump - along with savings from integrating the Specialty Fashion brands which it bought last year into its business - it expected half-year earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of about $29 million - at the top end of its previous guidance of between $25 million and $30 million.

"Noni B is pleased with this result, which reflects the success of the group’s focus on integration efficiencies, restocking of the newly acquired brands and continued online improvements to date," the company said in a statement.

"The group remains confident for the second half of the financial year as it continues its strategy to deliver synergies and improve gross profit sustainably across the portfolio of brands."

Noni B reaffirmed full-year EBITDA guidance of about $45 million, which is in line with the market expectations.

Noni B bought the struggling Millers, Katies, Rivers, Crossroads and Autograph brands from Specialty Fashion Group for $31 million in May last year.

Meanwhile, the latest NAB Online Retail Sales Index (NORSI) showed sales lifted 0.9 per cent but growth over the year slowed slightly to 10.7 per cent.

NAB's estimation of Australian online spending at about $28.86 billion over the year to the end of November.

The fastest growth was recorded by department stores whose sales accelerated 22.7 per cent on a year ago while grocery and liquor grew 17.4 per cent.