Kathmandu Holdings Limited provided earnings guidance for the half year ended January 31, 2013. For the period, the company announced that as a result of strong sales growth in the first quarter of the financial year and satisfactory trading performance during December 2012 and January 2013 an increase in earnings for first half of 2013 is expected. Total group sales for the half year will be approximately $165.8 million, compared to $146.7 million in the prior comparative period, an increase of 13.1%. Same store sales growth for the 26 weeks ended 27 January 2013 was 6.1% on a constant currency basis. Given this sales performance, and gross margins which are expected on a consolidated basis to be similar to the previous year, the company estimates that the first half 2013 earnings performance will be in the following range: EBITDA $20.5 million to $21.5 million, EBIT $15.5 million to $16.5 million and NPAT $9.5 million to $10.5 million.

The company expects to open 15 new stores in 2013.