'Not good at all': cost of living bites furniture titan

"The macro (economic landscape) is not good at all, this is one of the worst macros for furniture for sure," chief executive Anthony Scali said at an earnings briefing on Friday.

"We've got house prices going down, we've had interest rate increases, we've got inflation, we've got cost of living ... you've got a battered consumer."

Beyond wreaking havoc on petrol and fertiliser, the war in Iran was also crafting less-than-ideal conditions for the furniture giant.

"If the war stops and the oil (price) comes back down and maybe inflation is controlled, it would certainly be helpful if interest rates started dropping," Mr Scali said.

But the retailer, which also owns sofa chain Plush and more than 60 showrooms across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, made grew its bottom-line profit 31.2 per cent in the year to June 30 to $75.7 million.

It was still well below the group's 2022/23 financial year peak of $101.1 million, when consumers embarked on a post-pandemic retail splurge, but made for welcome relief as pessimism continues to prevail over Australian consumers.

Despite buyers' attitudes improving, July's survey results remained in the gloomiest 10 per cent of the Westpac-Melbourne Institute's 50-year records.

But shoppers spent 1.7 per cent more on furnishings in the three months to June 30 after a slight dip the previous quarter - the biggest rally in consumption over that period apart from alcohol and tobacco - ABS figures show.

Tighter wallets also meant higher proportion of visitors to Nick Scali showrooms were buyers, Mr Scali said.

"Traffic is down, but our conversion has improved a lot," the chief executive said.

"Product's doing well, and we you know we keep introducing proven winners in Australia that seem to be working."

Nick Scali's written sales orders were up 2.7 per cent for its Australia and New Zealand business and 31.4 per cent in the UK, but only because long-term closures and store refurbishments had massively stymied trading there a year prior.

Growing in Britain required diving into a more crowded market full of sharp elbows, spending more on advertising, and appealing to a similarly gloomy flock of consumers, Mr Scali said.

On the home front, safeguarding the retailer's healthy 65 per cent profit margin was made also trickier by paying its employees above the award wage.

"Wage inflation is just natural, particularly if you want good sales people," Mr Scali said.

"We don't have a lot of fat in our employment, that can be tricky."

Buoyed by news of recovering profits, Nick Scali's share price rallied in early trading on Friday, up 2.5 per cent to $17.70.