Property business Stockland has reported a 1.5 per cent fall in moving annual total (MAT) sales across its apparel retailers for the first half of FY25.
Apparel is one of the firm’s largest spending categories, with MAT sales hitting $377 million for the half. Compared to the first half of FY24, sales were flat, up just 0.4 per cent.
Stockland noted that discretionary categories such as apparel, jewellery and homewares are stablising with positive growth during the period.
The year-on-year sales growth in apparel is lower compared to the other specialty categories. Food retail reported the largest lift in sales, up 7.9 per cent to $124 million. Homewares was up 4.4 per cent to $50 million, while retail services lifted 1.9 per cent to $244 million.
Total retail sales across Stockland’s town centre portfolio was up 2 per cent year-on-year to $4.8 billion in the first half of FY25.
The specialty category was up 1.7 per cent to $1.4 billion, with supermarkets up 1.8 per cent to $1.6 billion.
Department stores and discount department stores combined recorded a 1 per cent lift in sales to $600 million.
This comes as Stockland reported a statutory profit of $245 million, up from $102 million reported in the first half of FY24, with pre and post-tax funds from operations (FFO) of $251 million, down 5.6 per cent.
“The first half result is in line with our expectations, and we are reaffirming our full year guidance,” Managing director and CEO Tarun Gupta said.
“In the past six months we’ve progressed our strategic priorities, and we now have multiple drivers of sustainable growth across our business.”