WHS - Warehouse Group

[Waltzing]

Transformational.............

no doubt about it....

T7 sorted it ...

finally a white Pensioner arrived in a private courier van NZ POST must have contacted after several repeated request from T7....

 Its the Transformational economy....

definitely not transportational.....

nor teleportational...

[Hectorplains]

Hmmm, generally I find NZ Post pretty good and due to our remote location most of our purchasing is done online and delivered. 

Back to WHS...  The reviews for The Warehouse highlight two common concerns. 1. Understaffing of shop floor 2. Issues with store management.

Supports previous commentary about their need to refocus on the physical stores, which after all are actually generating the cash.

https://www.glassdoor.co.nz/Reviews/The-Warehouse-Reviews-E41964_P2.htm?filter.iso3Language=eng

[winner (n)]

There's an article in NBR about online  supermarket Supie.

They seem to be struggling big time - no sales growth and operating expenses about the same as sales ...ouch.

The good news they say is -

The silver lining in the update was that Supie was now available nationwide, as the company has partnered with the Warehouse Group's The Market to deliver groceries outside Auckland.

"It's really been awesome to work with [the Market]," Balle said.

[Sideshow Bob]

I see recently Supie did some crowdfunding (or similar).

Would imagine would need deep pockets to compete in the big pond with the big fish.....

[winner (n)]

I see recently Supie did some crowdfunding (or similar).

Would imagine would need deep pockets to compete in the big pond with the big fish.....

Seems 700 punters put in $3.9m

But runway running out and they need a longer runway so looking for new investors

Maybe Nick should pump in a bit

[lorraina]

I expect it will be a wasted effort,much like WHS's grocery effort ..
I was at Barrington Warehouse on Saturday morning,and bought 2 jars of coffee.
One check out open.Two people in front of me,neither had a trolley,just a few hand held items.
 I then went to St Martins New World.Four check outs open.Customers had trolley loads of goods.

[Hectorplains]

Supie appear to have borrowed Bunnings web design and price promise. 

Good luck to them if The Market is going to be their saving.  Sounds like a stupie solution (sorry) to me.

[Fiordland Moose]

I expect it will be a wasted effort,much like WHS's grocery effort ..
I was at Barrington Warehouse on Saturday morning,and bought 2 jars of coffee.
One check out open.Two people in front of me,neither had a trolley,just a few hand held items.
 I then went to St Martins New World.Four check outs open.Customers had trolley loads of goods.

thanks for the observation. a timely reminder that shelf space is a valuable commodity in a retail outlet - and if you aren't getting the pull through from loss leaders that more than offsets their GP & the lost shelfspace you need to do something about that soon.

themarket you could put in the "do something soon about it category" but lord knows what will happen there

pretty interesting to watch, really.

[Waltzing]

Stating again how amazed i was at the level of service experianced at T7... If top management isnt performing the staff cetainly were..

Says something for retail staff on the front lines..

Shop was busy on a monday morning after Xmas selling glasses and surf wear plus paddle boards Central Hamilton.

[Basil]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/warehouse-group-proposes-cutting-190-jobs-in-auckland/NHQHAEA7UZFBTOVS5B5U27KML4/
190 jobs to get the axe.  My take: Shame its not 191.  A complete fiasco that a company making modest money for its size is jettisoning ~ $25m per annum down the drain on the CEO's whim and fantasy he can build a N.Z. style Amazon and he's paid a whopping $3.5m per annum to bring this punishment down on WHS shareholders.  $25m + 3.5M - $28.5m obvious savings right there.   By contrast 190 staff @ say an average of $60K each is only saving $11.4m per annum.  Hmmm

[winner (n)]

Get basil.....looks like the savings from disposing of 190 heads going into even more digital stuff.

From RNZ a Warehouse spokesperson said "This proposed change will allow us to deliver even more value to our customers and further align our digital capabilities while responding to challenging market conditions."

[Basil]

I've forgotten how much you said they've spent on consultants these last few years...wasn't it something like $75m ?  Why do they need to pay consultants all that money when the company is so incredibly top heavy with senior management paid exceptionally well already?  Shouldn't management and their huge army of higher level support staff already have the know-how to run what is at its core, simply a bunch of retail business's?

Maybe they need to spend another $75M on consultants so they can boost their market.com losses to $50m per annum and then they can lay even more staff off to make up the difference.    Talk about being on a road to nowhere.

[winner (n)]

Basil - that $75m (AFTER TAX) over the last few years wasn't all consultants - it was all about restructuring and becoming AGILE so included redundancies as well as consultants. But I reckon consultants got the biggest chunk of it.

in F20 I was horrified with this bit in the accounts - $22.0m of restructuring costs associated with the transformation programme (internally known as "Rise") for success fees payable to management consultancy firm based on achievement of expected outcomes

Never mind all 'adjustments'and didn't show up in Adjusted NPAT so hunky dory

But NPAT seems to be back to where they before they started all this so it seems all wasted effort but then if they hadn't done it they might not be here today

FYI - Adjustments from 2017 to 2022 totalled $153m (after tax) ..... huge eh, lots and lots of bucks on stuff that doesn't count

[Basil]

in F20 I was horrified with this bit in the accounts - $22.0m of restructuring costs associated with the transformation programme (internally known as "Rise") for success fees payable to management consultancy firm based on achievement of expected outcomes

Oh my goodness. Absolute lunacy they would sign up to a deal like that.

All these so called "transformational" and restructuring projects and capex, (forgive me I have forgotten but isn't the budgeted capex about $135m this year?), is nothing more than stay in business expenses, no matter what buzzword label they put on it. I reckon most of this year's capex is being funded by debt which makes me wonder how many more years can they keep flushing ~ $25m per annum down the toilet on themarket.com?

[Waltzing]

"Never mind all 'adjustments'and didn't show up in Adjusted NPAT so hunky dory"

uuummmm...  how does a payment not show up in a ledger... not an ACA accountant but ledgers are usually kept for payments from a bank accounts arnt they?

what were the adjustments... which page of the FA reports winner?