Kathmandu sales and profits rise, e-tail benefits from investment in website

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 18, 2019

Kathmandu saw mixed results in its latest year with the ANZ, UK and now-US-focused outdoor gear company saying its Australian business offset a weaker New Zealand operation.

That Australian strength helped it to report record profits with the 12 months to August seeing a 13.6% rise to NZ$57.63 million (€33m/£29m). Revenue rose almost 10% to NZ$545.6 million.

Australian sales rose 4.5% to A$321.4 million with like-for-like sales up 2.7%. That said, those comp sales had grown a faster 7.5% in the previous year, although CEO Xavier Simonet said the company has had three strong years of sales growth and comparisons are getting much tougher.

While admitting that Australia remains a difficult market, he said the company’s puffer jackets had sold well there.

But New Zealand sales dropped 3.1% to NZ$138.6 million with like-for-likes down 3.9% as the mild start to winter dented turnover. However, the volatile weather has had more positive benefits for the brand overall, Simonet said.

Frustratingly, he didn’t give any details about the UK business, which comprises its website, a store in Kensington and the brand being stocked in more than 40 Go Outdoors shops.

But he said the recently-acquired US footwear business, Oboz, saw pro forma FY19 sales rising 30% to US$44.6 million.

And the Kathmandu group’s overall online sales progressed well. “This is a critical channel for us and it remains our fastest-growing channel,” the company said. Online sales grew strongly once it had completed its re-platforming which it finalised in February of this year. It has seen increased traffic and also increased conversion as a result and online has lifted to 10% of direct-to-consumer sales.