The jewellery company – which was founded in New Zealand but has its head office in Brisbane – is now forecasting a full-year EBIT of $NZ45 million ($34.2 million). Its initial expectation of $NZ49.9 million ($37.9 million) was reported in January 2011.
The group said in a statement, “The recent floods in Queensland and Victoria, and the cyclone in North Queensland, are expected to adversely impact consumer behaviour in the coming months and these events were of course unknown at the date of preparing the budgets.”
Australia is a key market for Michael Hill, with 67.3 per cent of its global store sales originating from here.
Despite lowering its forecast, Michael Hill’s revised full-year EBIT is still 24.3 per cent higher than last year’s EBIT of $NZ36.2 million ($27.5 million).
The jeweller announced its new forecast at the same time as it released its EBIT and net profit figures for the six months ended December 31, 2010.
EBIT for the period was $NZ32.3 million ($24.5 million), a 6.5 per cent increase from the same period in 2009, and net profits before tax increased by 5.7 per cent to $NZ29.1 million ($22.1 million).
According to
Jeweller’s 2010
State of the Industry report, Michael Hill holds approximately 10 per cent of the Australian jewellery chain store market. The company has forecast that it will have 159 Australian stores by December 2012 and has ambitions in the US for as many as 500 stores.
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