Holdsport's earnings up 3.8% to 163.1c

Sales were up 5.0% to R630.9m‚ while operating profit increased by 3.5% to R94.1m.

The company declared an interim gross dividend of 75c per share from 70c a year ago.

The Holdsport group comprises the retail divisions Sportsmans Warehouse and Outdoor Warehouse and Performance Brands‚ a wholesale business that includes the First Ascent and Capestorm.

The company said despite the challenging retail environment total sales increased 5.0% and retail sales increased 4.9% to R600m.

Like-for-like retail sales grew by 2.5% while the retail divisions experienced price inflation of about 4.6% for the period. The weighted trading area increased by 6.2% relative to the prior corresponding period.

The Sportsmans Warehouse division is now trading out of 35 stores and will open one new store in Sea Point and expand three stores in the second half of the year. Like-for-like sales increased by 3.4%.

The Outdoor Warehouse division currently trades from 19 stores and opened a further store in Rondebosch on in September. Like-for-like sales decreased by 1.4%.

Performance Brands achieved R30.9m of external sales‚ a 6.1% increase from the previous period.

Looking ahead‚ the group said it expects trading conditions to remain challenging for the remainder of the year but‚ as always‚ the second half is heavily dependent on the festive season trading‚ which will largely determine the performance of the group in the second half and for the year.