Half Year 2024 Warehouse Group Ltd Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Warehouse Group Ltd (The) (NZSE:WHS) reported a 160 basis points improvement in group gross profit margin for the half year.
- The company achieved an 18.9% increase in continuing adjusted net profit after tax, reaching $30.7 million.
- Net debt significantly reduced to $18.7 million from $83.4 million the previous year.
- The Board declared an FY '24 interim dividend of $0.05 per share.
- The company appointed Tony Carter as an independent director, bringing extensive retail and governance experience.
- The group reported a net loss after tax of $23.7 million, largely due to a $60.1 million impairment from the sale of Torpedo7.
- Sales were down 4.9% to $1.6 billion compared to the first half of FY '23.
- The Warehouse sales decreased by 4.7%, Warehouse Stationery sales fell by 5%, and Noel Leeming sales dropped by 2.2%.
- The economic environment, including inflation and higher interest rates, negatively impacted consumer spending and sales.
- The company announced the intention to close or sell TheMarket.com due to its inability to achieve sustainable growth.
Thank you for standing by. Welcome to The Warehouse Group Limited FY '24 Interim Results Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the call over to Chair, Joan Withers. Please go ahead.
Tena koutou, and good morning. Welcome to The Warehouse Group 2024 Half Year Results. I'm Joan Withers, Chair of the Board. And on the call with me today are Nick Grayston, our Group Chief Executive Officer; and our Acting Chief Financial Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Celia Mearns. Also with us on the call today is our new incoming Chief Financial Officer Mark Stirton, who will officially start with the group on the first of April. Before we do move on, I'd like to take this opportunity sincerely thank Celia for stepping into the role of acting CFO so adeptly and what has been a busy and very technically challenging 6-month period. Thank you, Celia. Your contribution has been immense.
We'll go to Slide 4. The first half of our 2024 financial year has been difficult and the results
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