Briscoes managing director Rod Duke predicts retailers have a couple of difficult years ahead.
Mr Duke - who also controls the Rebel Sports and Living and Giving chains - says several smaller retailers may go to the wall.
He says that it was a tough Christmas trading season and it is only thanks to the strong New Zealand dollar - which gave greater purchasing power when dealing with offshore suppliers - that his company has managed to lift full-year profits by 9%.
As a result, the Briscoes Group says after-tax profits for the year 30 January 2012 to 27 January 2013 should exceed $30 million.
Unaudited sales during that period were up 3.35% to $452.7 million. Same store sales rose 2.6% over the year.
However, same store sales over the Christmas period grew less than 1%.
