Kathmandu Holdings Ltd (ASX: KMD) shares are up 17% after giving the market a trading update at its annual general meeting (AGM).
Kathmandu was founded in 1987 and now operates in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It’s one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest outdoor gear retailers and now has over 165 stores across the two countries. The Kathmandu name shares the same name as Nepal’s capital, which is near to the Himalayas.
Kathmandu trading update
The retailer reported that in the 15 weeks to 11 November 2018, total sales grew by 8.4% at constant exchange rates, excluding the US-based Oboz acquisition. Same store sales growth came in at 6.3%, with Australia’s growth rate at 7.1% and New Zealand at 5.2%.
For the first quarter, the US outdoor footwear Oboz delivered sales of NZ$15.7 million at a gross margin of 39.8%.
Kathmandu CEO Xavier Simonet commented, “We have achieved good sales growth leading into the key Christmas trading period, and we expect first halt profit to be strongly above last year.”
Last year Kathmandu reported half year EBITDA of NZ$25.1 million on revenue of NZ$204.8 million (click here to learn what EBITDA means).
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