Half Year 2024 Reject Shop Ltd Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Sales increased by 4.2% to $458.3 million, with comparable store sales up 2.3%.
- Gross profit rose by 3.6% to $185.1 million on a pre-AASB 16 basis.
- The company ended the half-year with a strong balance sheet, holding $80.7 million in cash and no drawn debt.
- The new merchandise strategy showed positive early signs, contributing to increased customer transactions and units per basket.
- The Board declared a fully franked interim dividend of $0.10 per share, the first interim dividend since February 2019.
- EBIT decreased by 16.1% to $19.4 million, and PAT fell by 12.5% to $14.3 million.
- Gross margin was negatively impacted by higher-than-anticipated shrinkage and a shift in product mix towards lower-margin consumables.
- The cost of doing business increased to 34.8% of sales, up from 34% in the prior period.
- Store labor costs rose from 12.9% to 14% of sales, contributing to higher overall store expenses.
- The company experienced inflationary pressures and higher domestic supply chain costs, partially offsetting the benefits from reduced international shipping costs.
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Reject Shop H1 FY24 results announcement call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Clinton Cahn, CEO and CFO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Ashley. Good morning, everyone. I'm Clinton Cahn, The Reject Shop CEO and CFO, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our 2024 half-year results conference call. Joining me on the call is Amy Eshuys, our Chief Operating Officer, who will join me in answering questions during the Q&A section of this call.
I'll start by walking you through the company's first half '24 results, which is summarized on slides 3 and 4. We have again presented our financial results on both a pre and post AASB 16 basis, which will assist you in comparing the result with historical performance. Our results include sales of $458.3 million, which were up 4.2% on the prior period and 2.3% on a comp store basis.
Then on a pre AASB 16 basis, gross profit was $185.1
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