It’s been a challenging year for Briscoe Group but the retailer is still outpacing the rest of the pack.
Rod Duke owns 78% – or 170 million shares – of Briscoe Group, which has seen its share price decline about 13% in the past 12 months.
Despite this, it’s still a top performer in New Zealand’s challenging retail landscape, and its market cap of almost $765m makes it the country’s largest retailer.
The group coped with a margin squeeze in its latest financial year to deliver another record profit, of $61m, as sales growth continued to underpin earnings.
However, as with many other retailers, it was caught out in May for underpaying employees. Briscoe front-footed the issue with an internal audit, which found some stores had failed to correctly roster staff required for cashing up at the end of the day.
Duke admitted the error and promised any affected staff would be fully reimbursed.
Briscoe has a 19.9% share of fellow retailer Kathmandu Holdings, which has been performing strongly of late – and its share price is up about 22% in the past 12 months. Briscoe received a tidy $5.2m dividend from Kathmandu in its latest financial year.
Duke is always coy on whether he’ll make another takeover bid for Kathmandu, merely saying he is an “interested observer” of its performance and potential opportunities.
Briscoe has reaped rewards for Duke – but it’s been a long game.
He was sent over from Australia in 1988, tasked with turning the struggling chain around. A few months into the job, he saw potential and made a six-figure offer for the business.
Duke, who started his career in an Adelaide shoe shop aged 16, also owns about $50m worth of residential and commercial property.