Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct International rolled out more eye-catching sales figures ahead of its promotion to the City’s premier league.
The sportswear empire, in which the Newcastle United owner has a 64% stake, posted sales of £613.3 million for the 13 weeks to July 28, a rise of 18.2% on a year ago and resulting in a 23.2% jump in profits to £260.1m.
The company is set to join the FTSE 100 Index later this month after a 70% jump in its share price this year, giving it a stock market value of around £4.3 billion.
It has benefited from ongoing investment, the demise of rival JJB Sports and a recovering retail sector.
There has also been the positive impact from the company’s bonus scheme, which recently rewarded around 2,000 staff with shares worth about £68,000.
In July, it reported a 40% leap in pre-tax profits to £207.2m for the year to April 28 and said the new financial year had got off to a strong start.
This was confirmed in yesterday’s figures, with sales from its core sports retail estate up 14.5% to £505.3m and gross profit ahead 20% to £215.6m.
Sales from brands such as Dunlop, Karrimor and Slazenger increased by 4.3% to £50.9m, leading to a rise in gross profit of 7% to £21.3m.
Sports Direct shares made their debut at 300p at the end of February 2007, but plunged to 32p in the following year in a bumpy start to life as a public company. They closed 13.5p higher yesterday at 729p.