Sports Direct Are Big Winners From The World Cup

Sports Direct, Britain’s largest sports goods retailer, had a very good World Cup with sales up by 9 per cent in the three months up to July. Group sales in the quarter rose to £408 million up by 8.8 percent from the £375 million recorded in the same quarter of 2009.

In-store sales performed even better, up 11.6 per cent to £365 million for the 13 week period.

One reason for the quarter’s profitability was that the group were quick to dispose of England supporters World Cup products once the England team failed to make progress in the tournament.

Pre-tax profits for the group rose 17.8 per cent to £185 million. Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United Football Club owns 71 per cent of the group.

The only slightly dark cloud on the group’s horizon was the relatively poor performance of the brands division that made a slight loss. Sales in the division that includes Dunlop, Slazenger, Carlton and Lonsdale, fell 6.5 per cent to £43 million which delivered a profit of £18 million.

The company said that sales since the end of July had been as forecast and that it still believed that its target of underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £195 million for the year to the end of April would be achieved.

Following the announcement shares in Sports Direct rose by 3.5p to close at 117p.

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