Highlights

  • Underlying Group NPAT for the six months to 31 December 2026 is expected at $28 million to $32 million.
  • ANZ written sales orders fell 15% in the first quarter of FY27, with store traffic down about 10%.
  • United Kingdom written sales orders rose 29%, or 14% on a like-for-like basis.
  • An August cyber incident made the ERP system unavailable for about three weeks.

Nick Scali Limited (ASX:NCK) is a furniture retailer operating showrooms in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In a trading update released on 21 October 2026, the company gave an underlying Group net profit after tax (NPAT) range for the first half of FY27 and described conditions across its two main regions.

Orders and traffic in ANZ

According to the ASX:NCK update, written sales orders in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) were down 15% in the first quarter of FY27 compared with the prior corresponding period, when orders had grown 11%. The company described trading conditions in the region as challenging and reported store traffic about 10% lower.

Nick Scali expects ANZ revenue for the first half to be 11% to 14% below the prior corresponding period.

United Kingdom moves the other way

The United Kingdom business reported a different pattern. Written sales orders increased 29% in the quarter, which the company linked to refurbished stores reopening. On a like-for-like basis, written sales orders grew 14%.

The UK remains a smaller part of the Group than ANZ, so the regional results pull in opposite directions within the ASX:NCK outlook.

The August security incident

On 13 August 2026, Nick Scali told the market it was investigating a security incident and had taken some systems offline. The company said sales orders and deliveries were continuing, and that it had found no evidence of unauthorised access to customer data at that time. It also notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Federal Police.

The October update stated that the incident left the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system unavailable for about three weeks, during which stores continued to trade and process orders manually.

Key Insights

The confirmed items in the ASX:NCK update are the first-quarter order movements in ANZ and the UK, the reported store traffic decline, and the company's own guidance. The underlying NPAT range of $28 million to $32 million and the expected ANZ revenue decline of 11% to 14% are management expectations for the half to 31 December 2026, not final results.

Written sales orders are an indicator of future revenue rather than reported revenue, so the outcome will depend on how orders convert into deliveries. The scale of the cyber incident's effect on reporting, and how any related costs are presented, will be clearer once the company issues its half-year accounts. Nick Scali (ASX:NCK) also noted that the UK is growing from a smaller base.