Soft holiday season sales combined with an unusual winter warm spell in Western Canada contributed to less than expected profits for Calgary-based sporting goods retailer The Forzani Group Ltd.
Company CEO John Forzani, who announced last week that he was stepping down, blames a warm December for contributing to weak sales in ski, snowboard and outerwear product categories, where combined sales on a comparable basis were down 22 per cent from last year. Excluding these categories, Forzani said, comparable sales in Western Canada were still flat.
However, retail system sales over the Christmas season were up 7.5 per cent over the prior year, the company reported. Corporate comparable store sales decreased 5.3 per cent, while franchise comparable store sales increased 9.7 per cent for the Christmas selling season.
“We continue to increase sales and improve our bottom-line results. However, the corporate comparable store sales during this period were below expectations,” Forzani said.
“The warm December contributed to a decrease of 11 per cent in corporate comparable store sales in Western Canada, while in Eastern Canada corporate comparable store sales were positive with an increase of 2.5 per cent.”
The company said it expects that closing inventories of winter merchandise will be below last year’s levels.
The Forzani Group is Canada’s largest retailer of sporting goods, operating stores across Canada under four corporate banners: Sport Chek, Coast Mountain Sports, Sport Mart and Forzani’s. The Forzani Group is also a franchisor under the banners Sports Experts, Intersport, RnR, Econosports and Atmosphere.
