children’s apparel retailer pumpkin patch announced its latest financial results for the 12 months ended july 31 2012 last week with total revenue at nz$300.6 million, up 3.1 per cent from last year.
neil cowie, pumpkin patch ceo, says that while the trading result exceeded market expectations it clearly reflects the challenging conditions the company has experienced across 2012.
“despite the challenging environment australian sales were up four per cent and new zealand sales were up three per cent, driven by very strong online sales growth and positive sales growth from our retail stores,” he says.
total global online sales for the year totalled more than nz$30 million with online earnings exceeding the ebit generated by all the company’s new zealand retail stores combined.
“this is a major milestone and a sign of the growth potential and scalability of our online model. our online sales in australia are the equivalent of around 11 per cent of our retail sales which is twice that of the average australian retailer.”
one of the other key focus areas for pumpkin patch is the development of multi-channel strategies.
“the merging of the traditional retail and online models is only just beginning, however, we believe we are ahead of the pack and will retail that position as we continue to invest in technology and supply chain capability.
“the customer reaction to our new ‘click and collect’ (buy online and deliver to store) model has been way above our expectations. we will be rolling out free in-store wi-fi for our customers in 2013 and trialling a number of other multi-channel options so watch this space,” he added.
