Sales at furniture retailer Nick Scali grew 5.4 per cent to $180.3 million through the first half, while net profit fell 6.6 per cent to $35.6 million.

The company had to close 55 per cent of its stores during the six month period, while also managing the widespread supply chain disruptions seen throughout the industry.

The group’s acquisition of Plush-Think Sofas from Greenlit Brands for $101.4 million, which added 46 showrooms to the group’s network, contributed a net profit after tax of $1.8 million to the group for the two months post-acquisition. 

On a same-store basis, and excluding periods of temporary store closures, written sales orders for Nick Scali stores increased by 4.9 per cent.

In the second quarter, sales orders were up 44 per cent since Nick Scali reopened in mid-November. The Plush brand also contributed significantly to the earnings, and total written sales for the period landed at $203.4 million – representing a 6.4 per cent growth compared to the previous year.

In the ASX announcement today, the brand declared fully franked interim dividends of 35 cents per share with a record date of March 7 and a payment date of March 28 this year.

Online sales revenue for the group was recorded at $13.7 million with $19 million of written sales orders including $2.4 million for Plush.

Due to the onset of the Omicron variant, trading in the current period so far has been down 6 per cent, with a 25 per cent decline in store traffic, but as customers adjusted to the pandemic, sales traffic improved toward the end of January.