Warehouse Group (NZX: WHS) reports FY22 sales of NZ$3.3B, shares fall

New Zealand’s retail major, Warehouse Group Limited (NZX: WHS), announced its FY22 results today (28 September 2022).

In its release on the NZX, the company said that due to the Omicron surge, FY22 witnessed a disrupted trading period with Auckland stores being closed for 23% of the reporting period. In the last 12 months, WHS’ Auckland stores were closed for a total of 84 days, while in the rest of New Zealand, they were closed for 21 days.

Nick Grayston, CEO, Warehouse Group, said that the results were pleasing despite the first half of FY22 being disrupted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He further said that with inflationary pressures rising, customers were looking for the best market prices, and the group’s retail ecosystem of brands, products, and services offered that.

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Key Financials

The company reported that despite disruptions, it was able to deliver sales of NZ$3.3 billion and an NPAT of NZ$89.3 million, down 18.3% over the previous period. Its Adjusted NPAT was NZ$85.5 million, down 48.9% from the prior period. As per the company update, its online sales increased 39.8% to NZ$503.3 million and were 15.3% of the total group sales.

Warehouse Group also reported strong growth in MarketClub, its new group membership program, which has acquired nearly 600,000 active members in the first 10 months of the reporting period.

Brand performance

As per the company, all group brands were impacted by COVID-19-related lockdowns, resulting in decreased footfalls by 12.1% compared to the prior period. Although online sales did exceptionally well, as per reports, they were still not enough to offset in-store traffic. The Warehouse, which is a brand of the group, saw a decrease in sales of 4.3% to NZ$1.7 billion.

Warehouse Stationery, another group brand, also saw a sales decrease of 9.1% to NZ$249.7 million. Its online sales increased 20.8%.  

 Noel Leeming, another brand, also saw a sales decrease of 2.8% to NZ$1.1 billion. However, according to the company update, it remains the second-highest sales result after FY21, as per the company release.  

Torpedo7 opened 3 new stores in 12 months and increased online sales by 31.0% to make up 35.3% of the total sales of the brand, as per the company.  

As per the update, TheMarket.com, which is an online marketplace of the group, grew during this period, and Kiwis are accepting it as one of their favourite online shopping places. It offers 4.2 million products from a host of local and international brands.

Dividend announcement

The Board declared a final dividend of 10 cents per share, taking the total dividend to 20 cps. The final dividend is expected to be paid on 2 December 2022 and the record date for the same is 17 November 2022.

Outlook for FY23

The group has a cautious approach as the cost of living and other challenges persist. The company did not give any earnings outlook and said that it would depend on the Q2 peak trading period.

On Wednesday, 28 September, the stock of Warehouse Group was trading down by 5.23% at 3.260, at the time of writing.