Endeavour Group reported a slight decrease in its total retail sales, dropping from $2.406 billion in the first quarter of last year to $2.331 billion during the same period this year.
The combined BWS and Dan Murphy’s sales dropped by 3.7 per cent during this period.
The group attributed this decline to subdued trading in the quarter and impacts from public holidays, including Easter and Anzac Day.
Online sales for BWS and Dan Murphy’s was $192 million, compared with $180 million in the same period last year.
Endeavour Group opened four stores and closed eight in that quarter, with nine BWS store renewals and one Dan Murphy’s store renewal.
The closure of the company’s Prowine bottling factory in South Australia is projected to result in an impairment of $15 million over this full financial year.
The group anticipates that inflation, while easing, will remain a headwind for both its retail and hotels sectors for the second half of the year.
“We have made an encouraging start to Q4,” said Endeavour Group executive chairman Ari Mervis.
“In retail, we delivered an Easter sales result in line with Easter sales in the previous year, and in hotels we continued to see good growth across all drivers – food, bars, gaming and accommodation.
“Following this improved trading performance in April, Group H2 year-to-date normalised sales (16 weeks) are broadly flat compared to the prior period,” said Mervis.
