Kathmandu Holdings, the New Zealand chain of outdoor stores, reports that its sales for the six months until the end of January reached about NZ$195.7 million (€115.7m-$130.3m), up by 9.1 percent compared with the same months the previous year. This amounts to a sales increase of 3.8 percent in constant currencies for the six months, which cover the first half of Kathmandu's fiscal year. At the end of August, the company operated 110 stores in Australia, 46 in New Zealand and four in the U.K. The retailer's gross margin for the six months was up by about 3.6 percentage points. Kathmandu estimates that its earnings before interest and tax for the first half will reach between NZ$14.5 million (€8.57m-$9.66m) and NZ$22.0 million (€13.0m-$14.6m), up from NZ$0.6 million the previous year and that it returned to a net profit of between NZ$8.5 million and NZ$9.5 million, against a loss of NZ$1.8 million. While trading was in line with expectations, the outdoor retailer benefited from measures to make it more cost efficient. Xavier Simonet, Kathmandu's chief executive, said in a statement that he expected the second half to make up about 55 percent of the retailer's sales and between 65 and 70 percent of its earnings for the full year. He also reaffirmed that the company was on track to deliver full-year net profit of NZ$30.2 million (€17.9m-$20.1m). Full results for the six months are due to be released on March 22.

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