6 Nov 2015

The Warehouse offers low-cost credit cards

1:42 pm on 6 November 2015

The Warehouse has bolstered its finance and mobile phone arms to keep its customers coming back.

The retailer has launched two new low-cost credit cards, neither of which will have establishment or annual fees.

The move will add to a suite of financial services that also includes travel, health, car, home and contents insurance.

The retailer will also take on the established mobile phone retailers, by offering its own new prepay mobile phone.

Departing chief executive Mark Powell said the company was the largest seller of pre-paid phones, and given the huge number of people who traipse through its stores, it made sense to offer credit.

Separately, the retailer reported a rise in quarterly sales.

Revenue rose by 8 percent to $634.5 million in the three months to the beginning of November, compared with the same period a year ago.

Red Shed merchandise sales, which account for about 60 percent of revenue, rose 4 percent to $374 million, with home and apparel offset by falls in entertainment.

Sales from the Blue Sheds - also known as Warehouse Stationary - rose 8 percent, while those from Noel Leeming jumped 15 percent and Torpedo7 was up 18 percent.

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