UK convenience retail chain Nisa has posted total sales of £728 million in the first half of its financial year, representing a 12.4% increase compared to the same period last year.
Non-tobacco sales reached £505 million, up 0.8% on a like-for-like basis, with tobacco sales falling 2.7%. The group's core retail trade experienced like-for-like growth of 1.9%.
Nisa says that its strong performance was driven by new stores and new member recruitment, with 409 new outlets opened in this period.
“I am pleased to report strong trading in the first six months of the year," said Peter Hartley, Nisa chairman.
"We have continued to serve our existing members well, and as a result new member recruitment has shown significant gains."
Interim CEO
The retailer also announced that Arnu Misra has been appointed as its interim CEO, following the resignation of Nick Read.
Misra has been an independent non-executive director at Nisa since November 2016, and previously held a number of senior roles as Asda, and Canadian chain Loblaw's.
“I am pleased to be leading Nisa at a time of great change for the convenience sector as top-up shopping continues to increase," said Misra.
"I have spent many years working in the retail industry and am looking forward to drawing on this experience to provide Nisa members with an exceptional value proposition that delivers for their customers."
Merger Talks
Last week it was announced that Nisa CEO Nick Read had resigned, amid talks that the Co-operative could be set to acquire the group.
Nisa, which operates over 3,000 independently-owned stores across the UK, has been the subject of merger talks for several months.
In June, it was reported that Sainsbury's was close to submitting a formal bid to acquire Nisa, which was seen as a counter to Tesco’s £3.7 billion acquisition of Booker.
However, last month, it was reported that that The Co-operative had entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Nisa, after Sainsbury's halted its potential £130 million takeover, following competition concerns.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
