Sportswear retailer Rebel Sport will open a sprinkling of new stores in regional and metropolitan areas this year and promote its profit-share scheme with key staff to ensure the company continues to grow its sales.
Managing director Stephen Heath said Rebel, which is majority owned by a subsidiary of Harvey Norman, will add a store in Western Australia's Melville and NSW's Tuggerah within the next three months to bring its total Australian Rebel Sport and Glue stores to 53.
"We have the capacity to open six to eight stores this calendar year and two will be before June," he said.
Mr Heath said the group had started off on a strong footing for the second half and increased sales for the first two months by 15 per cent.
The revenue line was boosted by organic growth and the opening of new stores.
But he was less certain about the next three months, as he said he did not know how the situation with Iraq would pan out and what impact that would have on consumer sales.
Investors were encouraged by the record interim profit result of $14.66million, sparking a surge of more than 10 per cent in its shares yesterday.
Rebel Sport shares closed 20¢ higher at $2.10.
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The group declared a fully franked dividend of 1¢ a share but Mr Heath warned investors that the stock would not be high yielding in the short term, as the focus is on its expansion strategies.
"Because we are in a fairly substantial expansion mode, we had a smaller dividend," he said.
REB Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
