The company said sales for the five months to December 31 were up 18.9% over the first half of the 2020 financial year and by 14.3% over the first half of 2019. Sales for the six weeks until Christmas Eve were up 8.7% year on year. Myer said it expects first-half net profit after tax to be between $61mn and $66mn, which would mark an improvement of between 89% and 104% higher than the previous year, or 54% to 67% higher than the first half of the 2020 financial year, the most recent comparable trading period unaffected by Covid.