Fishing sales offer under pressure outdoor retail giant crumb of comfort

Sales of fishing gear provided a crumb of comfort for under pressure US sporting retail chain Sportsman’s Warehouse in the second quarter of its financial year.

The group saw its net sales drop from $309.5m to $288.7m – a decrease of 6.7%, primarly due to lower demand across most categories and a decline in traffic as a result of the impact of consumer inflationary pressures on discretionary spending.

This was partially offset by same store sales growth in its fishing department and the opening of six new stores since July last year.

Paul Stone, CEO and President of Sportsman’s Warehouse admitted disappointment that sales and margins came in below expectations. “While we were more aggressive with our promotional activities during the quarter, our core customer remains firmly under pressure during the difficult macroenvironment and pullback in discretionary spending.

“We still continue to carefully manage the business and take non-customer facing costs out of the business. Although the current conditions are challenging, we are not slowing our progress to transform the business and get back our edge as the leading outdoor speciality retailer.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we remain confident that our strategic initiatives have us on the right path to turnaround this business.”

Jeff White, Chief Financial Officer, told investors that during the quarter Sportsman’s Warehouse successfully obtained a $45m loan to strengthen its balance sheet, allowing the company to focus its efforts on a continued reset of the business, providing the flexibility to make inventory purchases and targeted marketing campaigns to drive sales.

For the 26 weeks to August 3, net sales were $533m, a fall of 7.6% compared to the first six months of the last financial year. Same store sales decreased 11.5%.