Premier Investments full-year profit soars 17% on Smiggle UK gains

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Sep 23, 2016

Premier Investments reported a 17.9% profit increase to $103.9 million ($US79.34 million) for fiscal 2016. Total sales broke $1 billion for the twelve months, pushed on by Smiggle UK gains.

Operator of sleepwear brand Peter Alexander and stationer Smiggle, Premier Investments' total sales broke $1 billion for the twelve month period, up 10.9% to $1,049.2 million.

"The Premier Retail team, led by Premier Retail CEO Mark McInnes, has again delivered a very strong performance in a difficult retail environment," said chairman, Solomon Lew, in a press release.

"The 2016 result demonstrates the continued successful implementation of the Premier Retail Strategy to drive growth through Smiggle, Peter Alexander and our online offer while rejuvenating our core brands and improving efficiencies."

Peter Alexander achieved sales growth for the year of 20.4% driven by the opening of 11 new stores. But Smiggle was the star performer, with sales up 41.8%, following strong growth in the UK.

"Smiggle now has stores in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, England, Scotland, Wales, Malaysia and Hong Kong and is a truly unique international brand," said Lew.

"Our strong trading results in each country confirms the long term store roll out targets management have set and we continue to actively review opportunities in new geographies."

Outside of bricks and mortar, online sales grew consistently.

"Once again our online sales significantly outperformed the market, with our online sales growing by 39.6%," added Lew.

"We will continue to make significant investments in technology, people and marketing, to achieve annual online sales of over $100 million by 2020."