Super Retail shares dive after poor result Shares in Super Retail Group have plunged by almost 20 per cent after the company reported weaker-than-expected sales for the first-half of the 2013-14 financial year. Super Retail Group's chief executive Peter Birtles said there were a number of short-term internal issues, such as the roll-out of a new IT system and supply problems in the auto division, that pulled down the overall result. "The impacts of the mining slowdown and cannibalisation from new stores on like-for-like sales performance in our leisure division have been higher than expected," he said in a statement to the ASX today. Increased promotional activity to drive sales performance impacted gross margin but did not achieve the projected sales uplift. Mr Birtles said the internal difficulties had been addressed and the firm was implementing measures to strengthen gross margin in the three divisions in the second-half of the financial year. Last year, Super Retail Group reported a full-year profit growth of 23 per cent to $102.7 million.