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By Neil Maidment
LONDON (Reuters) - SuperGroup (L:SGP), the owner of clothing brand Superdry, said a bout of cold weather following an unseasonably warm Autumn had boosted demand for coats and jumpers, helping its underlying sales to rebound over the Christmas period.
Shares in the firm, which have almost halved in the last year, were up 10 percent in early trading.
The British group saw first half profit tumble 30 percent in December after warm autumn weather hit demand for clothing such as its trademark winter jackets, but on Wednesday it said sales had grown strongly, helped by a record performance online.
Having fallen 4.2 percent in the first half, like-for-like sales for the 11 weeks to Jan. 10, its fiscal third quarter, grew by 12.4 percent, with total retail sales up 17.8 percent.
"A return to strong positive like-for-like growth in the third quarter should be welcomed. The scale is likely to surprise and bring comfort on the brand strength and proposition," Investec analyst Kate Calvert said.
Sales were helped by colder weather, more accessories on offer and targeted promotions, Calvert said.
"Whilst there are still 15 weeks of trading remaining in the current financial year, this performance underpins confidence in the group's expected profit outcome for the full year of 60-65 million pounds," SuperGroup said in a statement.
That was despite a weakening Euro and one of the group's important wholesale customers going into administration, the firm said.
SuperGroup posted a pretax profit of 62 million pounds in 2013/14.