Cost of living pressures are forcing consumers to spend less on expensive fitness gear

The owner of Rebel sports chain and BCF is finding it harder to shift running machines, backyard basketball hoops and portable fridges as cost of living pressures pinch spending on fitness and hobbies.

Super Retail Group CEO Anthony Heraghty in Supercheap Auto in Everton Park in Brisbane. Picture: Paul Harris

The boss of the Rebel sports retail chain and fishing store BCF, Anthony Heraghty, says people are forgoing running machines, backyard basketball hoops and portable fridges for fishing trips as cost of living pressures curtails spending on sports and hobbies.

However, the Super Retail Group chief executive, whose retail brands also include Supercheap Auto and camping outfitter Macpac, said what is important is shoppers are still coming through his doors to pick up affordable goods like basketball boots, fishing tackle and light globes. But at this stage he hadn’t detected a spike in the sale of Kansas City Chiefs jerseys as its star player, and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, jets over to Australia.

Emily Poncini at Rebel Sport.

Combined with his active customer base which now numbers more than 11m (up 15 per cent for the half) and a new loyalty scheme at Rebel that is proving very popular, Mr Heraghty said he believes the retail group could continue to thrive despite the economic challenges and downward pressure on discretionary spending.

“So, what I would say is that if we look at customer visitation, our customers still come into the stores at or about where they were last year with a bit of growth. So we are not seeing customers not shopping – and that’s true for all the brands over the half, and that is good news.

“What we are seeing though is the nature of their basket is changing. Take a basketball system – which is effectively the basketball hoop that you’ve got in the backyard, one that every kid’s been getting for Christmas for the last three or four years. Well, this Christmas, they didn’t get the basketball system, but they got a pair of basketball shoes.

“It happens across the business, so in BCF that portable fridge business, no one is buying portable fridges at the moment but they sure as hell are buying a lot of fishing tackle.”

On Thursday, Super Retail posted a 3.2 per cent rise in its interim revenue to $2.019bn as net profit fell 0.6 per cent to $143.4m. Online sales were better, up 10 per cent to $260m. The company also cut its interim dividend to 32c per share, down from 34c, payable on April 12. The profit was ahead of guidance and market expectations, but the stock fell more than 7 per cent to $15.46 as it revealed a slower start to the second half.

Mr Heraghty said cost of living pressures were showing up in demand at stores like Rebel, with demand for high value items such as running machines, home training and basketball systems falling.

“What is pleasing for us is we’ve got the customer, the customers are spending but the nature of their spend is changing and that’s just part of the economic cycle, because cycles come and go, and what’s most important, is do you have the customer ready to go for when the cycle changes – and we would say we do.”

At its Rebel sports retail outlet like for like sales fell 3 per cent, up 3 per cent at its Supercheap Auto stores, sales at BCF rose 2 per cent and Macpac was flat.

In a trading update, the company said like for like sales growth had slowed at the start of the second half, with sales at Supercheap flat and down 4 per cent at Rebel. BCF’s sales were down 5 per cent, but Macpac’s up 5 per cent.

Originally published as Cost of living pressures are forcing consumers to spend less on expensive fitness gear