Kathmandu’s Easter sale promotion has pushed its total sales for the third quarter up by 31.6 per cent on the equivalent period in 2010.

Kathmandu CEO Peter Halkett said the 13 week period ending 1 May 2011 was helped by “very favourable” weather in Australia and the Easter long weekend.

“Clearly this has been a particularly good period for us, but it was in comparison to a relatively poor performance for the same period in 2010,” he said.

The company’s total same store sales for the 13 week period increased by 23.2 per cent over the same period last year. Same store sales for the period were up by over 20 per cent in both Australia and New Zealand, but down in the UK.

Year to date from 1 August 2010 total sales have increased by 23.1 per cent while year to date same store sales have increased by 15.5 per cent.

Halkett also confirmed that Kathmandu remains on track to deliver strong year on year sales and profit growth, given that trading performance in the third quarter was built on the 19.2 per cent sales increase achieved in the first half year where EBIT increased 28.4 per cent on the same period in 2010.

“Economic conditions and weather patterns remain key risks to our last quarter trading and it must be remembered that the final three months in the financial year have historically generated approximately 30 per cent earnings for the full year,” he said.