Sales across the group, which includes Rip Curl, the eponymous Kathmandu brand and footwear brand Oboz, rose 15.1 per cent to $NZ922.8 million ($891 million) across the year, with earnings before interest and tax jumping nearly 50 per cent to $NZ92.2 million.

A full 12-month contribution from Rip Curl, which the business acquired in late 2019, underpinned this result. The division was responsible for $NZ490 million in sales and $NZ56.9 in earnings, the latter of which was up a massive 1252 per cent on the prior year.

The company said the acquisition had outperformed expectations, and allowed Kathmandu to declare a final dividend of 3 cents per share, payable December 15.

Kathmandu itself saw sales plummet, however, down 17 per cent to $NZ354 million and earnings nearly halved to $NZ26.3 million. The division was heavily affected by the pandemic and associated lockdowns through much of 2021.

Mr Daly said Rip Curl’s strong performance was due to the business’ lack of reliance on the Australian market, with its overseas wholesale and retail operations continuing to thrive even as the Australian market remained largely shut down.

“Rip Curl can participate in all those markets that are freely open, so even with Australia and New Zealand locked down, we’re still seeing some reasonable results coming out of the US and Europe because those countries in those regions living with COVID,” he said.

Kathmandu’s results were bolstered by a total of $NZ27 million in government grants, including JobKeeper, the New Zealand subsidy and the US PPP small business loans. Mr Daly said the company still had no intention to repay the subsidies.

“Our business has clearly been impacted by the pandemic, so from our point of view, we don’t see a strong argument to make a repayment,” he said.

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