Dick Smith sales surge; The Reject Shop looks to turnaround; Shares tumble: Midday Roundup

Electronics retailer Dick Smith has reported strong sales growth of 10.1% for the first 15 weeks of the new financial year.

Chief executive of the company, Nick Abboud, said the retailer has recorded sales growth of 1.7% between July 1 and October 12, with total sales reaching above 10%.

Abboud added that Dick Smith was targeting its online sales to double to 10% of total group sales by the fiscal year of 2017.

The company also hopes to increase store growth to 450 stores by fiscal year 2017, with 20 new stores to open annually across Australia and New Zealand.

The retailer is also expanding its private label range, which is set to grow to more than 15 % of sales.

The Reject Shop looks to turnaround

The Reject shop has announced its sales shrunk by of 5.4% in the first quarter of the new fiscal year.

The company has blamed an unseasonably warm winter, weak consumer sentiment and increased competition, which has forced unmanageable store discounts.

The retailer highlighted that its first quarter sales had increased 2.7% quarter-on-quarter.

The Reject Shop’s net profit dropped 25% to $14.5 million in the year to June, as it dealt with underperforming stores, closures and relocations.

“This has clearly been an extremely challenging period for The Reject Shop and the retail sector in general,” chairman, Bill Stevens, said in a statement.  

Shares tumble on open

Aussie shares are down this morning following new data from the US which revealed the fragile state of the global economy.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 79.2 points to 5166.4 at 11:52am AEDT. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones closed down 173.45 points, falling 1.06% to 16,141.74.