Super Retail’s Rebel stores bask in soccer heroes’ glow

The performance of the Matildas at the World Cup has boosted sales for Rebel, shifting 60,000 Matildas jerseys, and seen owner Super Retail issue a special dividend.

Super Retail CEO Anthony Heraghty, whose chains include Rebel and Supercheap Auto, says some of his stores have produced one of the best performances of the sector in 2023, despite consumers squeezed by rising interest rates, as people embrace sports, outdoor activities and do-it-yourself car repair.

And a decision more than 18 months ago to heavily stock merchandise for the FIFA Women’s World Cup has paid handsome dividends, with Super Retail’s Rebel stores selling 60,000 Matildas jerseys, with support for Australia’s team expected to flow into sales of boots and other soccer equipment as the sport wins over legions of new fans.

Unveiling Super Retail’s full-year results, which included a surprise special dividend of 25c a share, Mr Heraghty said Rebel executives had met with sports apparel giant Nike 18 months ago to get ready for the World Cup, and that the sports chain had decided to build up high inventories of Matildas gear.

“Rebel has the most Matildas jerseys on sale … they performed very strongly, 60,000 units have sold and that is a huge amount,” Mr Heraghty told The Australian.

Rebel is also a sponsor of the Matildas and, despite the loss to England on Wednesday night, the enthusiasm and excitement around the team’s journey should lift participation in sport and drive retail sales.

“For every single one of those Matildas jerseys, there is someone, a boy or girl perhaps, to get in and play soccer, which translates into boots. And this is why we sponsor the Matildas and made the investment in women’s sports: we think there is a huge opportunity for participation.”

On Thursday, Super Retail reported a 9 per cent rise in annual net profit to $263m on the back of a 7.1 per cent rise in revenue to $3.8bn. Earnings jumped 10.4 per cent to $438m, slightly higher than analyst expectations of about $433m. It unveiled a final dividend of 44c a share, slightly up from 43c last year, but surprised with a special dividend of 25c a share – all payable on October 18.

Super Retail CEO Anthony Heraghty said the company had another year of record sales. Picture: Jane Dempster

A continued shift to “do-it-yourself” car repair helped sales of auto maintenance products such as lubricants at its Supercheap Auto retail stores, while a rebound in grassroots sports and the Matildas’ performance boosted sales of sporting goods at Rebel.

Fishing delivered the strongest category growth for BCF, while camping sales were in line with the record performance in the previous year. At its camping and outdoor chain Macpac, the return of travel after years of pandemic restrictions encouraged more outdoor activity and sales of items such as backpacks, thermals and luggage.

At its Supercheap Auto retail stores, comparable sales rose 10 per cent, while Rebel’s comparable sales were up 9 per cent. On the same like-for-like measure, BCF sales were flat, but Macpac’s sales jumped 24 per cent.

While Super Retail reported strong sales growth across its store networks for the year, in the second half that double-digit growth sank. Same-store sales growth for Supercheap of 15 per cent in the first half slowed to 6 per cent in the second, and Rebel sales growth fell from 11 per cent to 7 per cent. Macpac sales growth of 54 per cent in the first half ended the second up 5 per cent.

But Mr Heraghty said the second half was a “clean number” as it was comparing for the first time trading periods free of Covid-19 restrictions, and this showed healthy growth for his chains.

“A 3 per cent like-for-like (sales) number is a really good number, to get 6 per cent growth on a clean non-Covid-affected period, we would say that is a very credible result.”

He said higher interest rates, rents and the cost of living was affecting consumer decisions, but even flat sales growth since July in the current market was an excellent result.

Mr Heraghty said during the year Super Retail successfully implemented a range of cost-saving initiatives in sourcing, supply chain and logistics, and workforce management designed to manage costs, improve productivity and enhance workplace efficiency.

These initiatives enabled it to help offset the impact of inflation on wages, electricity and rent. As a result, the group had been able to deliver a 50-basis-points improvement in profit before tax margin and 12 per cent growth in normalised net profit.

For Rebel, total sales rose 8 per cent to $1.31bn with earnings up 4 per cent at $146m. Performance sports, basketball and football, were the strongest performing category.

In a trading update, Super Retail said it delivered positive sales growth since July, driven by the performance of Supercheap Auto and BCF. However, sales growth had continued to moderate as the group cycled strong sales in the prior year.

Super Retail shares rose 2.8 per cent to $13.72.