WHS - Warehouse Group

[winner (n)]

WHS share price pretty weak last week and closed at 239

Heading back to the 200 level I reckon

Wonder if Nick regrets buying Basils shares at 411 not that long ago ...prob not as he's on a pretty good deal with his pay and bonuses

[winner (n)]

What a disaster

No divie says it all .....what will Tindall Foundation do now?

http://nzx-prod-s7fsd7f98s.s3-website-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/WHS/408784/391201.pdf

[winner (n)]

Nick probably not even embarrassed with such a result

And they are giving him a big bonus if he stays on for a few more years....and probably get a big payout if they sack him

[Minimoke]

$1.8b in sales to make $17m in profit. Why bother?

[mcdongle]

$1.8b in sales to make $17m in profit. Why bother?

It gives some people something to do during the day..

[Basil]

Bit time poor this morning so just a very brief initial first impressions comment.
What a complete train wreck.  They pay Nick several million dollars per annum and this disaster is what he delivers.   No confidence to even pay a small dividend.  Oh my goodness!  Better not post what I think the shares are worth now, some holders might get their pitch forks out.

[Clearasmud]

Bit time poor this morning so just a very brief initial first impressions comment.
What a complete train wreck.  They pay Nick several million dollars per annum and this disaster is what he delivers.   No confidence to even pay a small dividend.  Oh my goodness!  Better not post what I think the shares are worth now, some holders might get their pitch forks out.

Looks like Nick needs the go and the restructuring needs to start.
I couldn't wait to sell these last year after the last report.
Edit: I see they are making 340 people redundant.

[winner (n)]

One has to start worrying when the admit the final F22 dividend of $30m odd wasn't covered by 0perational cash flow and then talk about increased debt ceilings etc etc

It seems that they also paid $80m of bills post balance date so the Cash Flow Statement is a fair reflection of what went on.

One thing is that if you include that $80m paid to creditors WHS Group has burned through $244m in the last 12 months

Yep Free Cash Flow negative $244m .... shocking for a company that in spite of all its sins etc is usually cash flow positive.

No wonder no Interim dividend and Chair Joan wouldn't commit to their being a Final Dividend in analyst briefing

[Basil]

WOW those are really scary cash outflow numbers Winner.
Shareholders must be fuming that they are getting nothing while management are creaming it with HUGE salaries paid to the C Suite. (6 people paid more that $1m reported in 2022 annual report, Nick paid more than $3.5m)
9 people paid more than $860K, source page 104 http://nzx-prod-s7fsd7f98s.s3-website-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/WHS/399491/379870.pdf

Company turns over billions, senior management are paid extremely handsomely, the board are fully paid for very average governance, the company makes peanuts and shareholders get nothing.  WOW, what a deal, where do I sign up for more of that...

Don't think Nick is too worried about those tens of thousands of shares I sold him a while back at $4.11, he only has 70,000 shares so it doesn't really matter when you're creaming it for $3.5m+ in annual salary and bonus's.

Looking at the divisional performance, amazing to see that losses on The Market are accelerating from $12m in the PCP to a whopping $16 million this half!
How much longer do they keep flogging that dead horse expansion strategy?
http://nzx-prod-s7fsd7f98s.s3-website-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/WHS/408784/391202.pdf
Corporate overheads through the roof too...but its all okay because now they have over a million subscribers to The Market....  Suppose Nick in line for another huge bonus this year for growing the market subscribers so well....the bigger the market gets, the bigger the market losses become....that's "brilliant"!

[Minimoke]

.....
average governance, the company makes peanuts and shareholders get nothing.  WOW, what a deal, where do I sign up for more of that...

The Warehouse - Where everyone gets a bargain!

[LoungeLizard]

6.3m related to restructuring, on top of what they have already spent plus the truckloads they have emptied into "The Market" money-pit. All of this discretionary expenditure - literally tens of millions - is at the heart of why they are in negative cash flow. They weren't forced to do any of this - these are management initiatives that have turned WHS from a cash rich, pretty steady, if unspectacular company, into an absolute train wreck. Heads should role, but they probably won't. The shareholders and employees will bear the brunt of it all. I know economic times are hard but this is exactly why organisations should stick at and enhance what they do best. You don't see Briscoe's or HLG cancelling dividends and that's all down to sustainable business models and being tightly run by people who know what they are doing. The Red Sheds - soon to be renamed The Dead Sheds!

[Basil]

MANAGEMENT HAS NO STAKE IN THE COMPANY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_iorX_MAw

The key difference between Briscoes and HLG on the one hand and WHS on the other is with the former, management have a large stake in the company and with the latter their stockholding is only a token one.  Someone needs to get up at the annual meeting and do a Gordon Gekko on them.
33 Vice presidents making over $200,000 per year (quote from Wall Street).

From the 2022 annual report WHS has the following number of executives in these salary bands
$200K-$300K 68
$300K-$400K 29
$400K -$500K 5
$500K-$600K 5
More than the Prime Minister is paid last time I checked; we have the following
$600K-$700K 3
$700K-$800K 3
$800K-$900K 2
$900K-$1,000K 2
$1,270K+ 1
$1,360K+ 1
$1,380K+ 1
$1,420K+ 1
$1,700K+ 1
$3,560K+ 1  (Obviously Nick)
My contention is we have a very poorly performing company that management have no real stake in, and the pigs at the trough are absolutely rampant.
In addition to the above we have Nick with his delusional theories about the Market with every increasing losses each year shaping up to be over $30m in FY23.

But wait this is a story that keeps on giving.  On top of that there is $14m of unallocated corporate overhead this period up millions on last period so the real losses at the Market are probably higher than $16m for the half if all overhead was allocated.
Why are they paying these Muppets millions per annum to flush $30 million plus per annum down the toilet on the market?

[winner (n)]

I assume there's been a business case for this Market thing.....signed off by the Board

Wonder how they going against milestones

Pretty good I suppose cos there's a million plus active users

[Breezy]

MANAGEMENT HAS NO STAKE IN THE COMPANY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_iorX_MAw

The key difference between Briscoes and HLG on the one hand and WHS on the other is with the former, management have a large stake in the company and with the latter their stockholding is only a token one.  Someone needs to get up at the annual meeting and do a Gordon Gekko on them.
33 Vice presidents making over $200,000 per year (quote from Wall Street).

From the 2022 annual report WHS has the following number of executives in these salary bands
$200K-$300K 68
$300K-$400K 29
$400K -$500K 5
$500K-$600K 5
More than the Prime Minister is paid last time I checked; we have the following
$600K-$700K 3
$700K-$800K 3
$800K-$900K 2
$900K-$1,000K 2
$1,270K+ 1
$1,360K+ 1
$1,380K+ 1
$1,420K+ 1
$1,700K+ 1
$3,560K+ 1  (Obviously Nick)
My contention is we have a very poorly performing company that management have no real stake in, and the pigs at the trough are absolutely rampant.
In addition to the above we have Nick with his delusional theories about the Market with every increasing losses each year shaping up to be over $30m in FY23.

But wait this is a story that keeps on giving.  On top of that there is $14m of unallocated corporate overhead this period up millions on last period so the real losses at the Market are probably higher than $16m for the half if all overhead was allocated.
Why are they paying these Muppets millions per annum to flush $30 million plus per annum down the toilet on the market?

Thats an obscene salary list.

[Hectorplains]

Surely no one is overly surprised by any of this...The writing hasn't just been on the wall, it's covered the ceiling.