Fishing is star performer at Australia’s BCF retail chain

As the resurgence in fishing participation across the world continues to grow, one of Australia’s leading suppliers of tackle has reported a surge in sales within the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Super Retail Group told investors that fishing was the strongest performing category during its last financial year at its Boating, Camping Fishing (BCF) chain of stores and a major contributor to a 4% increase in sales to $535m. Like for like sales grew by 3%, driven by both increased transactions and higher average transaction value.

Online sales at BCF grew by 33% to $45.3m, reflecting a shift to its online channel due to COVID-19 and represented approximately 9% of all sales.

The group reported that BCF sales declined in April due to government restrictions, but rebounded during the fourth quarter following a 68.1% like-for-like sales growth in May and June.

That momentum has continued into the first seven weeks of 2020/21 with BCF recording a 72% increase in like-for-like sales compared to last year.